Audio Visual Art....FOTC Style

This instructable is based on one I previously posted, Speaker Art and was made for my wife and as a tribute to the best folk parody duo, The Flight of the Conchords. If you have never heard of FOTC, please check them out below. I will show you how to integrate lighting and music into a personal painting. The theme is up to you, but I hope you enjoy this tutorial, and maybe become a fan of the Conchords, enjoy.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Speaker-Art/

http://www.myspace.com/conchords

The tools and materials for this instructable are straight forward, and you can improvise and substitute where needed.

Materials:

Deep Canvas
Paint (acrylic, oil, water, etc) I used acrylic
Variety of brushes
MP3 Player
Slim portable speakers (I got mine for $10)
Coat hanger
PVA and Hot Glue
Electrical wire
LED(I used 5mm blue)
Resistors
On/Off Switch
Power Supply (9v Battery)
4 small srews

Tools

Utility Knife
Pliers
Wire Cutters
Soldering Iron
Solder
Screwdriver
Ruler
A little artistic talent and patience

The First thing we need to do is create your painting. Choose whatever you like, but I think a music theme would be appropriate, but that is up to you. I chose to go for the Andy Warhol Pop Art style. This method is simple, limited in colours, and is very forgiving if you make mistakes.

Now I have been painting for some time, and find that using Photoshop to generate a template is the easiest way. You can find dozens of tutorials online giving the step by step process. If you have trouble, just message me, and I'll talk you through it.

Now you can either project the image on to the canvass with a projector, or do free hand like I did. Below are some progressive pictures of the painting, and the original screen shot I used as focus for the painting.

The painting took about two hours all together.

Ok, time to wire up the painting. I used 6 blue LED's, 3 - 30 ohm resistors, a simple switch and a 9v battery.. I used http://ledcalculator.net/ to design the schematics and to find out which resistors to use. If you have never used LED's before, search Instructables, as you will find dozens of tutorials to help you out.

I wired everything before I installed it on the frame to make sure it all worked, since we will be gluing it to the frame, you will not be able to change it.

Once you are happy with everything, glue it into place. Make sure you leave some room with the leads to the LED's. This way you can adjust their position when you are finished to get the optimum effect.

Now, take your speakers and position them in the center of the painting and glue them to the base. Make sure you can still access the power supply, whether its mains powered or battery. Make sure there is a gap between the front of the speakers and the canvas; this will help generate better sound quality. I used hot glue to keep them in place.

Once everything is where you like it, paint the back of the canvas to give it that clean look. Once the paint has dried, place 4 screws near each corner. This will help generate a gap between the painting and the wall to increase the "glow" effect. The good thing about the screws is that you can adjust them till you find the perfect medium.

Ok, we are almost done. Cut a piece from a coat hanger and bend (with pliers) to your desired shape, which will act as a cradle for the MP3 player at the front of the painting. Once you are happy with the shape, give it a coat of paint to match your artwork. When the paint is dry, glue it on to the bass (center of the painting).

Ok, find a place on your wall to hang you new masterpiece, hook up the MP3 player, place in the cradle, hit the switch and enjoy. It took a couple of tries to get the desired glow I was looking for. I didn't want something that over powered the painting, but gave a subtle yet noticeable look. The speakers are 3 watts each, and really give off a good sound.

I hope you liked my instructable, and please leave a comment, suggestions for improvements, and pictures of the ones you made. Cheers.