DIY gallery wall – Imperfection
Want to decorate your living space with a gallery wall that makes an impact, in an imperfect style? It couldn't be easier! This can be done with very simple means. Simple graphic patterns, such as tapered lines or semicircles facing one another in a varied arrangement, are often enough to create a few special works for your gallery wall. With STAEDTLER Lumocolor markers, you can draw on different surfaces – whether you opt for paper, acrylic glass, foil or metal, there are no limits to your creativity. When tracing, you can confidently do away with geometric triangles and precise lines – this is what makes that "imperfect" look. The use of papers, backgrounds and colours that compliment each other ensures a harmonious look without appearing boring.
An article by Vera
- Direct to:
- Tutorial video
- Material overview
- Step-by-step tutorial
What you need
Additionally required:
Watercolour paper in various sizes (e.g. A5 & A3), transparent film (e.g. overhead projector film), DIN A4 recycled paper, linen scraps, cold coffee or black tea, brushes, masking tape, picture frames and clamps
Sketch a lemon on a piece of paper or print out a picture of a lemon from the Internet.
Turn your motif over and shade the back with a soft pencil, particularly in the places where your drawing is on the front.
Then place the motif with the shaded area facing downwards in the middle of a piece of watercolour paper and trace the lines with a sharp pencil or ballpoint pen. The graphic is then transferred to the watercolour paper underneath.
Now trace the pencil lines with a Lumocolor permanent marker. Thicken these lines a bit more in some places than others – this reinforces the imperfect look.
To give your picture a quality passe-partout look, tape down the edges of the picture with some masking tape, in the desired size. The image looks particularly balanced if the top and bottom margins are slightly wider than the sides.
Then use a little cold coffee and/or black tea to colour in the entire background. Feel free to add a little more tea or coffee in some places. This darkens during drying and you get a beautiful watercolour beige shade. It is important that you work on watercolour paper, as normal paper tears when very damp. Finally, remove the adhesive tape and your first imperfect image is ready.
Then place your sketch under the film or the glass pane of your picture frame and trace the lines with the Lumocolor paint marker. Even when colouring, the surfaces can still be coloured in a little unevenly in order to reinforce the imperfect look.
Tip: You can use an overhead projector film, for example, which you can insert into the frame later with some linen fabric or work directly on the glass of the picture frame.
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