Upon rolling up the backdrop for storage, it would become cracked quite quickly. 3) Without ‘softening’ first, the dried paint would be very stiff and unwieldy. 2) With all that paint, the backdrop itself would be heavy as hell. 1) It would absorb quickly into the canvas and you would need much more of it to cover the backdrop. If you were to use it straight out of the can, there would be a few problems. You need to ‘soften’ up the paint before using it on your canvas. I used my roller with the extension pole to get down the base color. I ended up with quite a few splatters on my wood floor and had to be very careful not to splatter from one canvas to another while painting. In hindsight, I would have space them out further and covered more of the floor around their edges. I laid my canvases out on the plastic drop cloths. Note: the pricing above is just for one backdrop (though the price goes down a bit if you do more since some of the purchased items come with more than you need for just one backdrop). Since it’s such a big undertaking and I was already making the investment of my time and money, I wanted to get the most bang for my buck and I had the space to do so. I set to work in my studio, and chose to do a few canvas backdrops. To make it easier for transporting and ensure there would be any folding lines (ghastly!), I brought along my PVC pipe to the art store so that they could roll it directly onto the pipe for me at the time of purchase. Canvas there comes on large rolls and you can request the length you’d like. I opted to get my canvas from a local art store, Daniel Smith Fine Art Materials. Also, there is a seam running down the middle of the fabric which will inevitably show up on your painted backdrop. After taking it out of the packaging, you’ll need to be sure to steam out the creases from folding (and even after, they may still be visible). The drawbacks would be that the canvas is thinner and lower quality. The cheaper option would be to get a 9×12 canvas drop cloth from Home Depot for less than $10. There are a couple of options for the canvas itself. Fabric softener I got at the grocery store, and the needles, thread, and thimble were from a local fabric store (I’m sure you could also find them at Michael’s). Several paint stir sticks (usually free at hardware stores)Īlmost all of the items were purchased at Home Depot.5 gallon bucket/s for mixing the base colors – $5.Sponges and brushes for texturizing – $10.Small containers for mixing accent colors (I used yogurt containers, my answer to all of life’s little quandaries).Lots of rags (FYI, cheap cloth diapers are the world’s best rags).I used my studio space, but if you don’t have that or don’t want to block off a few days of use in it for the project, a garage floor or hard-surfaced basement floor would work. You’ll need a rather large place to work since the backdrop will be painted on the floor and you’ll want at least a couple of feet surrounding it on which to work. I’m sure there are about a million ways to paint a backdrop, but seeing what I’ve done may give you a great starting point.īefore you make a trip to Home Depot, the first thing to consider is where you’re going to be working on this project. There may be ideas of mine that you use or you may come up with your own little tricks. In this post, I’m going to tell you all about my process from beginning to end for those people out there who’d like to try it. There was a lot of creative problem solving along the way, and it’s a nice change of pace getting to work with a physical medium again when I’ve gotten so used to the world of digital photography and all those hours in front of a computer. Beginning to end, I had a great time working on these backdrops. Recently, I set about doing it!Īlong the way, I made plenty of mistakes and learned a few things that may be helpful for others out there who are embarking on this project. While they’re certainly worth every penny, I’ve always wanted to try my own hand at creating a similar look for my studio. But so do Annie Leibovitz and the rest of the world, so their price tag is justifiably out of reach in the thousands of $$. As pretty much every portrait photographer out there, I’ve always adored the look of Oliphant’s custom hand-painted canvas backdrops.
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