beadyeyedbrat

Village Backdrop 2008

Super Simple

Super Cheap

And it works

Last year I bought a roll of art paper in the kids' section at IKEA. It's been useful for a lot of things, including papier mache. This is the backdrop I'm working on for my village.

I tore off a piece that will fit the back of the shelf plus enough to wrap around the sides.  Put a small puddle of black acrylic paint in a custard cup and filled halfway with water, then mixed. The paint brush is 1" wide. Dip the brush in the paint then wipe it against the cup til it's about half loaded with paint. Brush back and forth from upper left to upper right. Reload brush and paint all the way across the top. Don't even try to be perfect. A little movement is good.

Once the top is dry, start working towards the bottom. Here you see where I added some white to the paint to try to make it lighter towards the horizon, but didn't like it, so I'm back to all black paint.

Cover the whole sheet with paint and let dry. Doesn't look like much at this stage, so don't get discouraged. See how it looks all wrinkled? That's because this is WET paper and I had laid it across a surface that had stuff on it. It works much better if you can lay it flat on the floor.

You can still see where the paper was bent, but in the dark it doesn't really show. These are the only pieces we have out so far. (October 9)

White paint was spattered onto the backdrop to look like stars.