Reproduction Art

Do you like art, but can't afford the real thing?

I have been working with posters for a few years using a technique that makes them look and feel like a real oil painting. It is really quite simple, take very little extra materials and lots of patience.


Here's what you'll need.

First choose your poster. There are a few great sites to buy posters from ... http://www.allposters.com/, http://www.prints.com/ and http://www.art.com/.


Now, depending upon the size of your poster you will need a stretched canvas. Try to get a canvas the same size as the actual print not the size of the poster which usually has a one colour border around the edges, which you will cut off and discard. As well you will need acrylic medium, sponges, brushes, scotchbrite pad and a bathtub.

The first thing you need to do is make sure all of your materials are assembed. Put an couple of inches of tepid water into your bathtub. Lay the poster into the water making sure that it is submerged and completely wetted. A warning here - when the poster is wet it becomes very fragile. I did one and unfortunately I ripped it in two spots when removing it from the water. However I liked the way it looked with the tears, so I ripped it in a few more spots. When I took it in to be framed the framer thought it was an antique painting.

Now lay the poster on top of your canvas to position it and remember the poster is very fragile. When you are happy with the position fold the poster back on top of itself in half and brush the acrylic medium on the canvas. Lay the poster over the canvas and to the same for the other half. Using a brush now apply more medium on top of the poster, working out the bubbles, etc... If you get creases and like the look of age do a few rips, scratch off a bit of the print, there are a number of things you can do to age the poster. Just have fun and play with it. The first one I did, I bought a very cheap poster $5.00 and wasn't worried if it didn't turn out. It did however, and still hangs in my master bathroom.

When you have completely covered the poster with the medium, the fun begins. Using a sponge or a scotchbrite you can now add texture to the medium but dabbing the sponge of scotchbrite into the medium. This will give an allover even texture. If you want more texture you can also embellish the artists brush strokes by brushing over them with more medium. The acrylic medium has a fairly long "open" time so you can play for quite a while to get the effect you want.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, when you brush on the medium it looks milky white, but dries clear.


There, now, you are done and you have an original oil painting for a fraction of the cost.