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How To Paint A House Portrait

This week’s craft project has me skeered, I’m not going to lie. For the past month and a half I’ve had fun doing a simple and quick crafty thing each week, like making a fall wreath, stenciling a pillow, painting baskets, decorating pumpkins & gourds, making vacation keepsake globes, and taking ceramic paint for a spin on a bowl full of colorful cacti. Each of those projects took under an hour, and they were pretty easy and straightforward (paint this, wrap this around that, caulk this) – so I don’t know what got into me this week and whispered “how about painting a little portrait of your first house?”

It easily took me five times as long as any other Weekly Crafty project that I’ve tackled, but I’m nervous about it. I don’t know, it’s kinda cute and simple and John really likes it (and if you see where it started – woof! – well, it came a long way) but it’s a far cry from those amazing house portraits on Etsy. This blog has always been about sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly though, so here’s how it all went down…

House Painting Hero

First of all, it’s a 10 x 10″ canvas from JoAnn (snagged during one of their 50% off sales for $4) and I used a set of acrylic paints that I already had, but I think if you need to buy one it’s around $12 at most art/craft stores (unless it’s priced higher at a place like JoAnn since they assume you’ll use a 50% off coupon).

By far the most fun slash cringe-worthy part is watching the progression of this little painting of mine. Here’s a “slideshow” of sorts with ten shots that I snapped as it went – many of which make me groan out loud – but I was channeling Dori pretty much the entire time. “Just keep swimming painting, just keep swimming painting.”

HousePaintingPortrait

I thought a breakdown of each step might be helpful in case anyone was wondering how I “built” the portrait in about ten different layers/stages, so…

  • Step 1: I quickly spread some green paint on the bottom and some blue on the top, just for a base coat for the grass and the sky. They both felt too bright and primary for me, but I thought it was fine for the base, knowing I’d be layering paint on top of it as I went.
  • Step 2: I stared at an old picture of our house and then just tried to transfer the shape of the house onto the canvas, capturing the general perspective, and including the chimneys and stuff. I ended up hating how brown/dark it was, but again, I knew I’d be layering more paint on top of it as I went, so I tried not to freak out.
  • Step 3: I added the roof in black and some red paint on top of the original brick color I had chosen to de-brown it. I also outlined the edges with a thin line of black, just to give it a little dimension.
  • Step 4:  I used black paint to add the shutters, the chimney caps, and the lattice thing after I was sure all the red paint was dry (there was about an hour-long break just to avoid any smearing). Oh and for every single step of this portrait I used one brush, which I cleaned throughout the process. It has a nice flat tip, so I could get some good lines for things like the shutters and the lattice just by using the edge of it, so that kept things nice and simple. Although I did think about Bob Ross and his happy little fan brush. Oh Bob Ross, you were such a stud.

Brush

  • Step 5: With a few shades of green paint, I added the bushes on the sides of the house, and the trees. I just sort of mixed some colors up to get a few different tones (some darker, and some lighter) to hopefully achieve something that looked a little less flat than using all one color.
  • Step 6: Next I added all of the white details, so that meant the porch and the window ledges. This is when I realized I hadn’t even accounted for the porch in the roof-line, so I extended it and gave the roof a lighter layer of paint. I also lightened up the neon-ish grass that I started with by mixing a lot of white into a few green globs of paint.
  • Step 7: After lightening the grass, I thought it was time to lighten up the trees and bushes, so those got the same treatment. Oh and I was just mixing all of my colors on an old plate and dabbing them on paper towels.

Plate Of Paint

  • Step 8: I finally added the two trees in front of the house on the left side, and since I had some gray-brown paint on my brush, I just played around with it on a few other surfaces (like the roof, the trees, the bushes, etc)…
  • Step 9: … but it looked dirty and muddled to me, so I layered more light green onto the bushes and trees and realized that a lot of times the roof reflects the greenery around it, so I took some artistic license and made that an even lighter green tone. It seemed a lot more harmonious than the stark white did, so I decided that adding a little tint of color, even to the porch, would make it fit into the scene a little better.
  • Step 10: Here’s where I went dot crazy. I thought that it would be fun to use the back of the paintbrush to make some little elevated dots on the bushes in front of the house since they were white azaleas. And when I did it, I loved the look so much…. that I went a little nuts. Before I knew it, I had added them to all the other bushes and even did dark green dots on the tree behind the house. BAD! So I quickly painted those dark dots out of the tree, and left just the ones in the bushes (and a few in the grass) that I thought were sweeter.

Making Dots

Then I stared at it for a good ten minutes and finally said “I’m calling it done.” All told, it was probably five hours of painting (spread across three days) and for the most part I really enjoyed the process. There was something comforting about knowing that I could always just add another layer of paint over something if I didn’t like how it turned out. It was like a challenge with endless do-overs.

After I was sure I was finished, I just let it dry for a good 24 hours and then I realized I should seal it, so I emailed an artist friend of mine and asked what she uses on top of her acrylic paintings to make them glossy and finished looking.

Wrapped Sides With Paint

She clued me in on Liquitex High Gloss Varnish, which I think I vaguely remember using years ago in college, so I grabbed some at Michaels (yes, predictably with a 50% off coupon) for about $9 I think, and applied three thin and even coats about four hours apart. I was surprised this stuff was so much money ($18 regular price for a small size) but it’s really thin – sort of like poly – so a small bottle like this could easily last you 30+ paintings. So now that I have it I just have to try not to lose it. And to try and drum up the confidence to paint something else…

Liquitex

Here it is all hung up in a corner of the office. John has been earning mad husband points by saying it looks really nice there, but I think it would look better paired with another painting… maybe of our second house if I ever get the urge to dive back in and make one.

Painting Done Hung1

When I peer a little closer, that’s when I say “this is kinda cute” so I thought I’d toss in a little detail shot for you. I debated painting the sides of the canvas white or green or even charcoal but in the end I wrapped the image around the side by just continuing the sky/trees/bushes/grass, which I think ended up being a good call.

House Portrait Detail

So that’s the story of my crafty house portrait pursuit this week. Upon further reflection, I think I wish I had done the middle tree behind the house in the lighter green tone and the two on the outside in the slightly darker green color. That might have looked a little more like the house had kind of a halo of lightness with the darker things on the outside edges.

Have any of you guys attempted a house portrait? Was it with paint? Mixed media like fabric or decorative paper? Did you do something in photoshop with one of those filters like watercolor? Or did you shoot a portrait with your camera and get it all framed up and matted nicely?

Comments

  2. Victoria says

    Oh Sherry! This little house painting is so charming – it is full of heart as well as art. Like others have commented, you are too hard on yourself. Your painting seems to capture the essence of your first house and how you feel about it – the love and care you both put into it. I love it! Please do more paintings – they really are good (IMHO). Please, Sherry, I want some more.
    p.s. and do sign and date it. It is worthy.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ahhh! That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen! I’d love to do that for our tree! I’m thinking of a “handmade” theme this year for ornaments (and maybe gifts too) and that’s perfect! Thanks so much for sharing!

      xo
      s

  4. Caitlin says

    I love your house portrait. You aren’t giving yourself enough credit. I made one of the first house that my husband and I lived in after we got married that we rented. I made it out of clay as I was in a pottery class right before we moved. It lived on our mantle for a while before I finally packed it away. It was a nice memento, one that I’ll probably do when we move from the house we’re in now.

    Reply

  5. Kimberly says

    It’s awesome and I love it! I’ve wanted to do a similiar painting of our dog, but to do one of our old house and our current house is a great idea too. Thanks for the inspiration, as always. And thank you for bring honest with us and showing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Although there’s not much ugly going on with the Petersiks and YHL. :-)

    Reply

  6. ajira says

    I must say that this is my favourite crafts post so far. I really enjoyed reading about your process, and I am just so glad that you’re painting. I’m always to hear about more painting. This particular painting is just delightful, warms me right down to my cockles. I do hope you’ll paint your second house at least, if not all three. And gurrrrl, you could totally sell house paintings on Etsy, yo… no doubt!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks so far! I can’t believe so many of you think this is your favorite! Ahh! I was so nervous to post this. Thanks so much for the kind words guys. I’m definitely a lot more inspired to paint the other two houses for a nice little collection on that wall!

      xo
      s

  7. Erin says

    Adorable! You are such a talented lady Sherry! I thought you’d ordered it from Etsy before I read the post! Sign it and keep them coming… Clara and the bun (along with their children) will treasure them!!

    Reply

  8. Jenny says

    I checked Etsy for house portraits and I actually like yours better…it’s more creative somehow. Great job! I have done a couple of abstract pieces, one of them inspired by your book, but I might have to try a house portrait myself sometime.

    Reply

  9. Roxanne M says

    ~It’s Adorable!
    ~It looks great on the wall!
    ~I love the image on the edges!
    ~It is dying for a friend (your second house!)

    Reply

  10. Ashley C says

    Sherry, I think it looks fantastic! It’s super cute and I think it looks awesome. I agree though, I think it would look great paired with a painting of your second home, too!

    If you didn’t want to paint again, another option is to open up an image of your second home in Photoshop and make it look like a painting then have it printed up on a canvas. Although, that might be a bit more expensive. Or you could always modge podge it on a canvas and get a similar effect. Either way, it will look super cute, I am sure!

    Reply

  11. Melissa says

    You’ve totally used liquitex after college – on the horse photos you mounted in your old room. Im not crazy-stalker for remembering this, I remember bc I went and picked it up after I read about it on here for some DIY art I had done for my daughter’s nursery!

    Reply

  12. Jess says

    Okay, I really LOVE this! Very cute painting!!

    A while back I mentioned to my mom that I wanted one of those custom watercolor house portraits like on etsy, just in passing… And she went and surprised me on my birthday with her own rendition of our house! She just took a picture & used one of those photo software tools that turns your picture into a sketch, then she water colored over it. (Neither of us are artists, nor do we claim to be, haha) But it turned out perfect for what I was wanting, just an imperfect little reminder of our home that I love so much. I know we won’t live here forever, so it will only get more special to me as time goes by and we move on.

    Anyway, here’s a link to the pin, I just put it up on pinterest so you could see: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/181269953725278493/

    Reply

  13. Alexandra says

    Sherry it looks awesome! We tend to be our own harshest critics but the key thing is that you dove in and did it! Woohoo!

    Reply

  14. Anne says

    Very cute Sherry but I wouldn’t give up the day job, haha, I have no talent so you did a much better job than I ever could.

    Reply

  15. Melissa says

    Much easier for me to remember these things since I do a DIY project approximately once every millennium. I’m sure it starts to get hazy when you do multiple a day.

    BTW – the painting is ADORABLE!!!!

    Reply

  16. Jenn says

    I want to pile on the love and tell you your painting is so cute and really impressive!! And hey, if you and John love it then that’s really all that matters – it is art afterall. :)

    I painted a large abstract canvas which is front and center in our living room. It’s not perfect (at all), and I’m certainly not an artist, but my husband loves it and is so proud to tell everyone I made it. What more could you want right?

    Awesome job girl!

    Reply

  17. Timothy says

    i love this so much! its so adorable and awesome!it makes me wanna start painting again. i used to paint alot more often but not so much now. love it!! :)

    Reply

  19. kat says

    you definitely need to sign it! i do think it’s a monet. a little muddled when you are close, but awesome-sauce when you are far away. :)

    Reply

  20. Erin Port says

    So darling and sentimental…agree you should do the next 2 houses…it will be a nice keepsake! Thanks for sharing, it was worthy of it…I can only draw stick people so I am in awe of your non-stick house talent!!

    Reply

  21. Elisa says

    Well isn’t that the cutest painting!! You did so great.

    I have to ask, that cup of pencils…are they just random pencils? I have a pencil collection so that’s why I’m nerding out about this…I get one from each state, province, city, country that I visit! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They were from a super sweet reader while we were on the book tour. They say Young House Love on them, and I’m obsessed (as is Clara, who wants to draw with every color).

      xo
      s

  22. Holly says

    Nice job! I envy people with artistic abilities. I like the idea of remembering past houses!

    Just curious, you mention taking art classes in college (I can’t remember if that was your major or not). Did you keep any of your art work from those classes? I’m surprised we never see anything on display. Or maybe we have and I just don’t remember. :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      My mom has a few things proudly hanging on her wall (moms!) but I’m mostly weirded out by them (big self portraits, some abstracts with boobs in them, etc). I generally like art by other people, like my dad’s sketch of an owl from the seventies.

      xo
      s

  23. Kate Craig says

    Painting is totally beyond me so I’m impressed! I just bought a big pack of 10×10 canvases from Joanns for $2 each. I bought them to have my 2 year old do some paintings, which I was going to seal with Mod Podge. Do you think that would work??

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Has anyone tried that?! I would think it would work as long as you let the paint dry and test it on a small spot (maybe the side?) to be sure the ModPodge doesn’t smear it.

      xo
      s

  24. Sarah says

    As Miss Mustard Seed says, there is always a point that it looks hopeless. Keep going! I have followed her advice; usually very successful outcome. I think your project was a great success. Years ago, on an old distressed board, I wood burned a version of our first house. Turned out to be nice. Thanks for your blog. I know as a 64 year old I am in a reader minority. You’re keeping me young! Never want to become stagnant. Thanks

    Reply

  25. Leigh Card says

    Way to plunge in and share the adventure with us! I love the colors and the way that you wrapped the picture around the canvas. Love this!

    Reply

  26. Penny Smith says

    Has “Vino Van Gogh” come your way yet (if not, oh my golly what a money making machine that is! No rental fees, and $38 a person for a canvas, and a plate of paint and of course th teacher and helpers…. Maybe google it).
    It has spurred my desire to paint again! The first two I attended I had half off coupons and the last one was free because of an issue at the second one I went too… But it does have me spurred to paint more!

    Hey, also, I saw this and thought you might like to catalog some of these ideas for current or future Thanksgivings!!
    http://spoonful.com/family-fun/20-activities-for-the-kids-table

    Reply

  28. Jolene says

    This is truly a sweet little painting. My favorite photo of it, by far is the first on that shows it wrapping around the edge. That shows how charming it is. I’ve been tempted to do one of the house we built (and recently sold and really miss) but I haven’t put it at the top of the project list yet.

    Reply

  29. Suzy H. says

    Your description of multiple layers/many changes to your image reminds me of the funny saying about painters: Do you know how a painter knows a painting is ‘finished’? It’s finished when it’s sold, and leaves the painter’s studio!

    Reply

  30. Jennifer says

    I LOVE what you’ve done with the acrylics, Sherry! The landscape is so soft and the choice to forgo cast shadows makes it look like an illustration for a children’s book. Really sweet. (can’t you just picture Little Red Riding Hood skipping by?)

    I have never been able to get my acrylics to look that soft, so for buildings and landscapes, I generally stick to watercolors. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/96053404526501136/

    Reply

  31. Kelly says

    It looks so cute! Good job Sherry.

    I’m curious, does anyone know if it’s possible to paint on top of a photograph? Maybe it’s cheating, but it’s an idea that appeals to me if I was going to attempt something like this (not sure I could free hand it as well as you did, Sherry!), but I don’t know if the paint would stick. Has anyone done this, and does it work?

    Reply

  32. Laura says

    You did a really great job. The two trees look like they were painted by a professional. I think the hardest part is just knowing where to start. I guess sometimes you have to just dive right in!

    Reply

  33. Adrienne says

    I have a similar acrylic painting of my grandparents’ house hanging on my living room wall and I love it. One of my grandpa’s friends painted it in the 60’s. So who knows, maybe your painting will still be around and loved in 50 years, too!

    Reply

  35. Natalie says

    Very nice job!

    Totally random question: How do you add slideshows to your blog? I can’t seem to figure out a way to do it without using a 3rd party site.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I actually made that into a GIF, so just search “how to make a gif” and it should come up for you. Not too hard! It’s just sort of the act of combining a few jpgs and then scroll in the order (and at the pace) that you set them. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  36. Jessica says

    I actually made a little house portrait with gold leaf on a canvas painted in BM Moonshine that I had you sign at your Ridgewood, New Jersey book signing! You took my picture with it! It’s displayed in my hallway. : )

    Reply

  37. Meg says

    I’ve started a house portrait but haven’t finished yet. It’s a line drawing then I used interior design type markers.

    I actually did a friends house and they used the drawing for their house warming invitations. Not sure why I haven’t finished mine yet.

    I love yours!

    Reply

  39. beth says

    Love it. My girl (8 and 11) enjoy going to our neighborhood paint bar. They walk you through step by step through a painting. Such fun. We hang them throughout the house. I often hide mine and just let the jr artist shine.

    Btw….if you have not seen Christmas ideas by bhg….you should take a look ……felt deer and moose head taxidermy ornaments (in white). Perfect for your collection and they look quick to make

    Reply

  42. Felicia says

    Can we do one of those “what’s your favorite part” games like you guys do for house crashes and such? I’ll go — My favorite part, hands down, the two trees in front of the house. They seem so much more 3 dimensional than the rest of the painting. They make me feel like I’m being pulled into the painted scene.

    I hope you eventually find your muse for the other houses as I’m sure they will be just as darling!

    Reply

  43. Jennie says

    I love it! I am inspired … thanks, Sherry! I am painting a dollhouse right now, but maybe I will try a painting next!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I guess when something’s close to our heart, we like to capture it in a few ways (we have 2 paintings of Burger, 3 different maps of Richmond, and about 10 framed photos of Clara). A professional ink & marker rendering and a small homemade acrylic painting felt like a sweet mix.

      xo
      s

  46. Maggie says

    This is awesome! I’m glad you took the plunge and started painting! Also I’m sure it took guts to post the work online, so bonus points for that. Van Gogh would be proud :).

    P.S. The extension of the image around the edge of the painting gives it a little extra something, it is a pleasing surprise.

    Reply

  48. Kierstin says

    Sherry, I commend you for putting yourself our there. It’s one thing to refinish a floor or paint a wall, but it’s an entirely differently thing to expose your artistic creation to the world. I applaud your courage (because let’s face it, people can be MEAN). Even a subjective eye would tell you that you’ve done a beautiful likeness to your first home. Kudos, artist.

    Reply

  49. Kelly Orr says

    You did a terrific job! You obviously put great effort and care into it. Sharing it with strangers demonstrates your willingness to be vulnerable, which is a very winsome quality. :). You definitely should do another.

    My daughters also have an artistic gift (which they inherited from their handsome father)! My 13 year old drew a picture of our puppy this summer. It is similar to yours in that she took pictures of her progress in “layers”. I ran across them in our picture files when I was looking for a photo. If you are interested, you can see the pictures here. http://ourkenilworthhome.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-artists-gift.html

    Someday your children will really treasure your house painting!

    Cheers!
    Kelly

    Reply

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