Paint Your Own Owl Couple Clock

HI I'm Jenny from I Heart Jenny's Art. I wanted to share this tutorial with everyone because I really think everyone can paint. So this is a really easy to follow tutorial with minimal free-hand work. Give it a try!

What's cuter than love birds? Love owls of course! (yes I know they are a type of bird)
You can't that owls are "in" right now, so I thought it would be the perfect subject for a paint-along project. I did a boy and a girl owl to represent me and my boyfriend. The paint colors are totally up to you, so make it your own. This would make a great wedding/anniversary/valentine's day/ other sappy occasion gift. You can customize it to the couple! And, if you don't want to make it a clock, you don't have to!

Here's a list of supplies you'll need.:
-16x20 canvas, primed
-Clock kit
- Balsa wood: 1 square (or round piece) ½” thick. And 1 long piece cut to length to fit just inside the canvas stretchers
- Scissors
- Large Brush (about 2" wide)
- Detail/thin line brush
- Small brushes
-Angle Brush (optional)

Paint Colors:
-Brown
-Dark Brown
-Orange
-Teal
-Light Blue
-Light Purple
-Skintone/light peach
-White
-Black
-Cream

Take your large brush and dip it a little bit of water. Then dip it lightly into the light blue paint.

You are going to take long strokes, the length of the canvas, with the blue paint. By adding the water, you are giving it a more translucent and layered look. Streaks of lighter and darker blues are good. But for the first coat, it should be pretty light over all. Let dry (use a hairdryer to speed this up). Do this a second time to add more dimension.

-Print the attached PDF file of the owls.

-For this step you can use normal pencil, but charcoal works amazingly better. Cut the owl out close to the outline. Cover the back with charcoal.

-Place the owls on the drawing where you’d like them. Tape with painters tape or with scotch tape. Trace over drawing with pencil to transfer the image. Make sure to trace all the lines.

Now for the branches. I added a little bit of cream to the brown to make a slightly lighter shade of brown. This way, it won’t blend in too much with the owl. Using the Medium brush, free hand the branch so that it goes across the page and under the owl’s feet. Add some smaller branches if you want. While the light brown is still wet, add some dark brown to the lower side of the branches. Blend on canvas.

Now it is simple “color by number” so to speak. Here’s a break down of what goes where. You’ll want to mostly use the small brushes and maybe the angle brush for filling in the spots. You’ll probably need multiple coats of each, which can be time consuming. Make sure in between coats, you let the paint dry, otherwise you’ll just smug off the old paint.

Now time to do the outlining. I know it seems scary but there are two tricks to this that will make your life way easier. First, use a long skinny brush and long slow strokes. This will make a nice smooth line. Secondly, add just a little water to the paint to thin it out. Thick clumpy paint will hinder you in making a nice line.

To add the clock:

- Cut a hole in the center of the owl’s tummy large enough that the shaft of the clock and get through.

- Hold your long piece of balsa behind the canvas. Using a marker, go through the hold in the tummy and mark the balsa wood

- Glue your ½” piece of balsa to the long piece on the opposite side of the board from where you just marked (so you can still see the mark)

- Now you are going to drill through all of your balsa wood, at that hole location. You’ll want to use a bit that is large enough that you can slide the clock shaft through easily.

- Mount your balsa wood to the back of the canvas, I used hot glue and it worked just fine.

- Install clock according to kit directions.


And you're all done!
Check out other tutorials here: I Heart Jenny's Art