I’ve got this small lonely avocado painting in my kitchen. For almost a month I’ve thought about what I could paint to compliment it.

I really wanted to match the colors and add to the plant 🌱 theme. I could see a larger painting, with a gray background and these large leaves, sorta like palm leaves.

When I was able to see the image in my mind clearly, I went to work.

Here is my process about the painting below.

Found a large canvas. My local art shop had a 50% off sale for canvases about two months ago. During this sale I picked up a few for when I need them. The size I’m working with is 48 inches by 36 inches.

It’s a level one canvas so the sides will be thinner. Level one just means it’s a “beginner” canvas. Possibly for well obviously beginners but also maybe for projects you want to test out or home projects. Level one canvases can also be used for framing because it’s a thinner canvas and should be easier to frame. If you want more details about canvas sizes watch my YoutTube video about this, I try to explain it all and show the differences in quality as well.

After my art space is set up I get a game plan together which looks more like a list:

1. Draw palm leaves

2. Pick and mix colors

3. Paint

4. Adjust as needed

I get distracted really easily so a list helps me during those moments. My painting process so far hasn’t been absolute or structured this is just what I did today. Tomorrow that could change.

For paints I chose to use Apple Barrel paints. This project feels sorta like a craft project to me because it’s for my home and if I don’t like it how the painting turns out it’s not a huge investment. You can use any type of paint you want. I knew my budget for this project and these paints were the quality and price range I was looking for.

For the larger paint bottle there was a lot of paint! For whatever reason the white paint I bought online was denser than the in-store paints I purchased. Not sure why there is this difference but I’m happy that it has lasted me so freaking long. I’ve had this paint for about 6 months now. She’s finishing up her role though.

That was item #2 on my list. Now it’s time for the fun. #3 Paint (and #4 adjust as needed, which goes hand in hand with painting.)

I begin painting around my palm leaves in a sweeping like motion. This is a really thin coat of gray. Or grey? Idk it’s late.

This color is my background color. I paint around the leaves. I’m not worried about getting the gray paint on the leaves because I’m going over it in my next blog post with different shades of green.

I did my painting backgrounds, normally I will paint my background color then add the drawing on top but didn’t want any additional wait time. If you want to know how to paint your background, guess what? I created a short video about that too. Check it out here, in how to prep your canvas.

In my next blog post I will share more of my progress. Thanks and please follow my blog for more art.

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