I’m working on my largest painting yet! I have to say, this is a lot more difficult than painting on a smaller canvas or piece of wood.

To start with, I was worried about getting an even background color, because with a canvas that size (48×24) you obviously can’t just use a regular paint brush (well, you can but it will take a long time and be hard to get an even color). So I got a paint roller, just like the one’s you use to paint your wall. I mixed the color I wanted for the background, then just rolled on the paint. This was a very fast method and it only took me a minute or two to evenly paint the whole background.

Here’s how the pic looks so far:

The only thing is if you want the background to be smooth, this method will not work because you end up with the tiny bumps, just like when you’re painting a wall. Luckily I didn’t need my background to be smooth.

I should also make note that I’m doing this painting with acrylic paint, because I need it to dry quickly. I would have loved to do it with oil, in which case I would have probably painted the background with a regular, large horsehair paintbrush, but due to the fact that I have no space to allow that to dry for a week or so, I went with acrylic.

I sketched the picture before I started painting it (below) and then I sketched it directly onto my background. Then I began painting it. The picture at the top is what I’ve got done so far.

I plan to have this picture completed by my June 4th art show, and I will post regular updates as the picture comes along. It will be a mixed media painting, with acrylic.