I can't believe I haven't written a blog post since October! What the heck?! The holidays were nuts, man, and to tell you the truth I am having a heck of a time shaking the post holiday funk. Why can't adulting include one month a year (preferably January) to lay around bingeing Netflix and eating chocolate in sweatpants? Ah well...if anything will snap me out of it, it's a little famous artist fun!
Kinley and I have studied lots of different artists over the past couple of years, but we always seems to fall most deeply in love with the vibrant + graphic modern and pop art making ones and when I came across Jim Dine on a random Google the other day, I knew I had found our newest obsession! That guy just happens to be the perfect artist for a Valentine's Day art study, too 😍
For each one, you'll need:
Jim Dine is famous for his bright colors and graphic designs making ordinary objects like tools and bathrobes extrordinary, but our favorites of all of his works are his heart art pieces. He does amazing sculptures, etchings and paintings -- check out "Drunk Running" and "Confetti Heart I" if you've got a minute and feel like swooning.
We decided to try our hand at our ultimate fave, his stunning Four Hearts, in our own style -- on photo paper! The results were super vibrant and gorgeous and perfectly perfect for a Valentine's Day present or decoration if you pop one in a cheap IKEA frame. Wanna give them a try, too?
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- 2 sheets of photo paper ┃we used 8.5x11 inch Epson photo glossy photo paper for this one
- liquid watercolors
- paintbrushes
- sticky foam photo mounting squares
- scissors
- 1 sheet of white paper for the background "matte"┃copy paper or plain drawing paper will work just fine
- glue stick
1. Paint the first sheet of photo paper with one color family. This is the sheet you will be cutting the hearts out of later. We used red + pink, you could totally switch it up and go blue + turquoise or yellow + orange or something. Keeping it in the same color family will ensure that you don't end up with a bunch of brown hearts...unless you like brown hearts, in which case, GO NUTS FRIEND!
2. Paint the second sheet of photo paper. I put alllllllll the different colors in a muffin tin for this one and demonstrated how to make dots by gently bonking the brush on the photo paper a few times for Kinley and then just set her free. You'll end up with a little brown, but it's all good. I made sure to encourage her to get lots of paint on her brush for her splotches because when the brush starts to get dry, the paint on the paper starts to scrub together and get a whole heck of a lot more brownish.
3. When the paint is dry, cut four hearts out of the first monotone painted paper. I gave Kinley a cardstock template to trace in the name of uniformity on the backside of the paper and she cut them out.
4. Cut the dried splotchy gorgeous photo paper into an 8 inch square and use the foam photo mounting squares to attach all four hearts to it. There's no need to worry about perfect spacing. Even Jim's hearts are scootched a little left of center. Also, if you don't have mounting squares, you could totally just cut little squares of cardboard and mount those to the back with double-sided tape. (The whole idea is to make the hearts look like they are popping out of the background. Jim used highlights and colors to achieve that effect, but mounting squares, foam OR cardboard, do the trick in this version.)
5. Cut white background paper into an 8.5 inch square and use a glue stick to attach the finished heart art to it. This step is totally optional but the white peeking around the edges really makes the crazy gorgeous rainbowiness pop!
That's it! Super easy, right? Kinley and I have been dreaming up other ways to recreate this gorgeous work of art so I might just have a second option in the works soon. She thinks the background of the original beauty looks like Jim Dine used his fingers to make the little dot prints and that's the only hint I am giving! My lips (and fingers) are sealed! 🤓
** UPDATE: we finished the second version and I think it's even prettier than this one! Click on over and check it out 😁
** UPDATE: we finished the second version and I think it's even prettier than this one! Click on over and check it out 😁
If you do give this one a try and post it on social media, Kinley and I would LOVE to see it and share it on our Instagram stories -- just tag @raising.kinley and we will be right there to swoon and comment and heart and all the things.
Happy Arting, y'all!
xoxo Cara
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