Recently I have
discovered a way to get a nice shabby chic style paint finish on
cardboard which is an ideal background for graphic artwork. The
result I got reminded me of photos of ancient Roman frescoes.
First I painted some
white acrylic paint onto some brown cardboard cut from a cereal
packet. I let it dry a bit for about 5 minuets, then made some really
strong tea (2 tea bags, no milk, with a little boiling water in an
old cup). Using a sponge, I dabbed the strong tea onto the painted
surface to make different patterns. Then I tonked the painted surface
with newspaper and found some of the paint came away. Now another way
to remove some paint which would be more reliable, would be to use a
damp sponge, as you are more likely to get predictable results. On
some occasions tonking with newspaper onto acrylic that is too dry
may result in newsprint being left on the painted surface (the wrong
way round).
If required, the shabby
chic background could be scanned and used digitally as a background
to graphic art using the layers
feature on
image editing software. Gimp2,
a free downloadable image editor is available on the internet for
PC's. Using Gimp2 it is simply a matter of first opening your
background image, then open the graphic image you wish to use on top
of the background, as a layer. Do this by choosing File
and Open as Layers.
Now from the menu bar choose Layer
and Transparency then
Color to Alpha... and
press OK. Your image
will now merge with the background. It is best if your top image is
graphic in nature e.g. line art (or plenty of white background if
using a coloured image). I would advise making your top image darker
using curves or levels so it is not too faint on top of your
background image. The background image could also be made lighter
with ease and colour saturation and lightness can be altered. Images
can also be made sharper easily enough using Gimp2.
 |
| Shabby chic background. (Acrylic and tea on brown cardboard.) |
 |
| A coloured image with a white background, was added on top of a cropped section of my shabby chic painted background, using layers in Gimp2. |
