Tropical Breezes
Frigid winter temps had me dreaming of “Tropical Breezes”.
Most of the year I have a gorgeous view outside my window that helps keep my spirits high and allows me to love where I live. But during the winter, the gray skies and bare trees can be pretty blah. This year, when the temps started diving and the shades of gray had me feeling blue, I decided to paint myself (and you!) a beautiful tropical view that helped to boost my spirit and improved my view. Check out the process below or view the listing in my shop
The daunting blank canvas! After taping my blank canvas on the wall, I begin taking measurements, penciling in designs, and tape off the perimeter of my painting.
In the next steps I filled in the scenery.
One of my favorite parts of this painting was the water gradient. It took a minute to get the colors right but as I painted and the gradient started to come together, I was falling in love with the turquoise color that was appearing. While this photo is a little dark, you'll see the colors come thru in the next few images.
A better look at that turquoise water. The finishing touch of the water was to add in some tiny waves and ripples along the beach.
Once the background was finished, I marked and taped off the windows and window frame. On window pieces I'll often do the windows first however since so much of this project was smooth gradients, I chose to do the background first.
Thank goodness it's just paint! After painting in part of the window frame I decided I didn't like the layout and needed to change it a bit. I remeasured and re-taped then painted over what I'd already done. To my surprise, the first layer actually added some neat details to the final layers to make them look like pieces of wood. To quote Mr. Bob Ross, they were "happy little accidents."
The final step was to add the palm fronds and shadows. I taped off the windows and frames again and then painted the palm fronds over the tape to make sure they lined up as I wanted them to. The next images are the final shots, the same ones I used for the shop listing.
