REFLECTION OF THE SUNSET

Introduction:

My project is called ‘Reflections of the sunset’, basically it is a painting of a sunset, designed with different sizes of toothpicks and wood sticks, that are glued to a canvas and painted afterwards.

I choose this project because overall I like DIY projects and because I am a nature lover. Especially, I enjoy the sea, the animals, the sun and the sunset. What I tried to do was joining all the elements of nature I most adore and putting them in a painting. As a result, I choose a sunset at the beach and tried to put as many details as possible.

Materials:

1. Wood Sticks (No. 8)
2. Bamboo Skewers
3. Scissors, Pliers, or Craft Knife
4. Wood Glue
5. Ruler
6. Graphite Pencil
7. Set of Paintbrushes
8. Set of Acrylic Paints: Yellow, Red, Orange, Blue, Brown, White
9. 1 white canvas

The first thing to do is the sketch.

Mine was done pretty fast, because I already knew what I wanted to display on my canvas.

It is important to already have an idea and plan most of the elements you wish to see on your final piece, if you do so, doing the sketch will be an easy and fast task. I would advise you to use a pencil, that way, you can easily correct your mistakes.

The second step is the cutting and gluing the sticks.

The longest process was cutting the toothpicks the right size. The gluing part was also a bit challenging, but once you start putting them together and the canvas starts to gain structure and look like a sunset, it becomes fun and kind of like a puzzle.

When I got the hang of it, I advanced pretty quickly.

The third step is not mandatoy but you can add little details to your art.

When I was done with the main part of my canvas, I decided I wanted to add some more details to my art. So, I started working on the little details, such as the house and the palm trees.

At this point you can literally do as you wish and use a bit of your imagination, to complete your art as you see fit.

The final step is to put your colors to use.

In this step you can paint your canvas as you wish, I decided to paint a typical sunset at the beach with a bright blue sea.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the final result, I got everything down that I wanted and I think the painting looks good. Maybe I could have used a better paint, especially on the blue part, so that the paint would look better. So, I would advise you to use wood paint for this part and not acrylics like I did.

The project is complete and I hope some of you find this interesting and try to do one of your own. I tried to describe everything as clear as possible and I hope you enjoy it as much as i did!

And remember you don't have to be an artist to be creative and have some fun;)