Cut-Out Canvas Art Project
Mix That Painting in a New Way by Creating a Niche in the Canvas!
Most often, painters look at a canvas as a clean, solid surface waiting to have elements added to it while acting as a foundation. Not in a mixed-media artist's studio.
Creating mixed-media paintings is a very freeing experience. The ability to experiment with many different media on one surface allows for imaginations to grow, new techniques to develop and inhibitions to break down.
The focus of this mixed-media painting project is going to be slightly different. Rather than looking at the canvas solely as the foundation for layering, why not create niches in it similar to altered bookwork?
For this mixed media project, you will need the following materials:
- Stretched canvas, as large or as small as you are comfortable with
- Acrylic paint, a wide variety of colors
- Paintbrushes in various sizes
- Small containers of water
- Styrofoam block
- Straight edged ruler
- Pencil
- Craft knife
- Craft paper cut to fit the inside of the back of the canvas
- Painter’s tape
- Ephemera and collage items (buttons, game pieces, paper elements, clip art, and so on)
- Decoupage medium
- Sponge brush
- Hot glue gun and glue
Follow these instructions to create this mixed media painting:
- Plan out the basic idea of your painting, and sketch out your thoughts in your art journal if necessary.
- Place the Styrofoam block under the canvas where you would like to cut out a niche, use the straight-edged ruler to draw out a shape, and cut it out with the craft knife. Repeat this step until you have cut the desired amount of niches.
- Affix the craft paper to the back of the canvas using the painter’s tape. Be sure it is very secure and will not buckle or slip.
- Paint as you usually would and add the ephemera directly into the paint. If there are chunkier items, affix them using the hot glue gun. Allow the piece to completely dry.
- Remove the craft paper from the back and reveal how the cutout’s look in the mixed media painting you just created. Using the decoupage medium, attach pieces of ephemera to the back of the canvas so they show through the niche. Allow these elements to dry completely.
- Once the niches are complete, alter the rest of the painting including the niches until the desired look is reached. Seal over the entire piece with decoupage medium, or spray lacquer.
There are many ways to change up this project to make it your own style. For example, you may wish to add slides to each niche and place the painting in front of a light box. Or you may wish to cut the niches out after the painting has been completed and incorporate the cut pieces into the painting somehow. There is a lot of room for creative freedom here.
