Easy Dramatic DIY Painting

Hello!  Yeah, it's been a week since I've been on here... I know. :( There's just some things going on right now and I've been working on finding out stuff about the upcoming move and such (which is a huge job!). 

But I was cleaning out my front closet, which had gotten crazy-messy ever since I introduced our beach equipment to it, and I found a canvas that I had worked on and forgot about. Annnd, I was kinda over the picture I was making for it. I originally wanted to make an urban-type painting with buildings and fire escapes after a picture I saw on the wall at McDonald's (haha, don't laugh, it was a cool picture for a burger joint). 

I stumbled upon this project from the Young House Love Pinterest Challenge and thought it was wonderful and interesting. It's very dramatic and different from everything else I have in the house. Sooo.... I have painted over the canvas for the third time now! 

via Dans le Townhouse

Here's my canvas' evolution...

He started off purple...

Then painted over and drawn on...

And then painted white again...

So I just painted about 3/4 of the picture white and left the rest for the black paint. Dipping the brush in water before the black paint (as suggested by the above blog) really helped achieve the grainy, black-washed effect. 

I painted a few strokes, let it dry and just kept adding on until I was satisfied with the look. I even painted around the corners of the canvas (as suggested by the blog) and it really gave it a finished look.

And I'm totally in love with it!

It's dramatic, gorgeous and cheap! And if you've got next to no artistic talent, this project is probably the easiest canvas project you can do. 

So, go forth and experiment with these colors or try some of your own combinations!