Try a shabby chic style paint finish for your artwork.

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.