50 shades of grey - literally

Happy Sunday! So, for my first DIY tutorial, I thought I'd jump on the trilogy that's sweeping the nation - 50 shades of grey. I'm currently on the second book (which is way better than the first so far, in my opinion), and a few days ago got the idea to turn it into a painting. No abstract interpretation in this case though - this painting is a cool, modern and literal 50 shades of grey. No, really: the painting actually consists of 50 shades of grey.

What you'll need:

-A canvas (I used a 16x20 but any size will do)
-Painter's tape (I used 1")
-Black, white and silver paint (I used acrylic) and paintbrush
-Glaze

First, measure your canvas and split up in even sections so there are 50 boxes in total and attach the painters tape to create a grid:

Next, start with a blob of white paint and with each box, slowly add and mix small amounts of black paint. The idea is to go from light to dark grey, getting darker each box, until you get to about the middle where you'll reach the darkest grey. At this point, I went backwards and went gradually lighter but this time, added some silver to get different tones.

Once you're done, let dry (this is where I'm super impatient and had to really stop myself from pulling the painter's tape off.

Once dry (for real dry), pull off the tape carefully. I didn't like how perfect they looked with their straight lines, so I took my paintbrush and dry brushed the boxes with some white to create a more natural look. I then covered the entire canvas with a glaze to create a uniform look.

Et voila! Your very own 50 shades of grey painting. Right now it's sitting on my fireplace mantle but we'll probably hang it up in the bedroom. Because, well, that just seems like the appropriate place for it.
 

Have fun!

Monica

--Create something--