Creating Illustrations For Your Home

Creating Illustrations for the home is a budget friendly way of expressing your creativity. Why buy per-manufactured art at the big box store when you can make a meaningful piece yourself? You can even teach yourself how to draw by using beginning instruction books found at the bookstore or your local library. Go through the digital photographs on your computer to see if there is one you would like to paint or draw. What I like to do after selecting a photograph is to print it out using my printer, or sometimes I head over to Target and print out the photograph there. Having a reference photograph is very useful when I draw and paint, but is simply a jumping off point. I can be as surreal with my illustration as I prefer, but having something to guide me is crucial.

Drawing your own pictures and painting your own paintings is a great way to create art for your home, and it is a budget friendly way too! However, if you do not like to draw you can use photo editing software to create a fun image that you print out and cut and paste to a canvas. Some people even make collages on a blank canvas by cutting out several pictures they like and gluing these onto the canvas with decoupage glue. Making art for the walls of your home is affordable and inspirational, and something I highly recommend you try at least once.

Pick out a reference photograph of something you would like to paint, or maybe draw. For this illustration I selected an old photograph of my cat Max, which I used as inspiration for the vibrant acrylic painting. Max was the most adorable fluffy cat, and commemorating his memory with this painting helped me to remember all the good memories I had with my feline friend.

I took a sheet of 8 by 11 1/2 card stock and scored it in half with a knife before folding the card.  Scoring the card stock ensures it will have a smooth crease like the cards you purchase at the store.  Next I drew a picture of my childhood kitten Max on the front of the card.

Here I used acrylic paints add color and dimension to my kitten Max.  This sweet kitten disappeared after only a few months, but my sister suggested I commemorate his beauty with a birthday card for my niece.

After painting the Max birthday card with acrylic paint, I had to used heavy object to flatten out the card stock as this medium tends to make it wrinkle.  Once the card was flatten out it was ready to give to my niece, who has the option of framing this card to put on her wall long after her birthday is over. 

One day when I went for a nature walk in the San Bernardino Mountains I took a picture with my cell phone, which served as a reference for creating a vibrant oil pastel illustration. I wish I could have had my nice camera with me on this nature walk, but my cell phone did a decent job in a pinch. See, you never know when a cell phone photograph might become the inspiration for a drawing.

I used my sketching pencil to lightly draw the mountains and the dead tree that are the focal point of this illustration. I love the view with this tree, and this drawing had quite a bit of meaning to me since I used to walk past this part of the forest each day when I was growing up. They say you should write what you know, and I think the same can be said for drawing and painting.

Oil pastels are fun to blend, and result in some very interesting drawings. Have fun experimenting with this medium, which is great for people of all ages. However, make sure to use lots of soap and water after working with oil pastels as these can stain your fingers. It has been awhile since I created an oil pastel drawing, so I might have to try hand at this again.