These are some killer ways to jazz up your garden and backyard! Learn some new spray paint art ideas to expand your creative repertoire. Don’t think of spray paint only as a tool for graffiti-related mischief on picket fences, hehehe. It’s got a great place for revitalizing an old project or starting a new one with a bang.
And best of all you don’t need to invest in something expensive like a full-out airbrush kit. Just those actual cans known as “Krylon” (more on that in a moment!)
On a beautiful day I’ve taken full advantage by starting a few spray paint art projects for the obvious reason that the medium is diffusive and I had to take it outdoors In addition to paint cans all I need is some newspapers and my object of choice.
Here is one of mine, involving empty soda pop cans that I cut and turned the inside out and cut into flower petals. I decorated the fence with a whole mess of these -you can find the tutorial here.
Do you have some random keepsakes stored up that you don’t want to let go of having a hard time finding a use for? Or perhaps a treasured object d’ art that you’re fond of, but it could use a little -waking up? Spray paint to the rescue!
Some springs or summers ago I became enchanted with the use of spray paint for art projects as it is great for large surface area coverage, as well as a breathing new life into an old project.
Tips for Success
Spray paint today is highly adaptable, and made for a wide variety of uses. If you’re concerned with sticking, there’s not a lot of stuff it WON’T bond to (Although this might have taken 2 coats and then I gave it a good varnishing, too)
Protect your workspace with newspaper, and take it outside, it can spatter. Shake cans thoroughly until the ball rattles. If you have some cans that you’ve had awhile and aren’t sure ow much paint is left, you;ll notice the ball in the can sounds hollow. What’s left in the can will sputter a little. What you want to do with these is up to you…I would set these aside for a small detail, it’s a bummer when you need a certain color and it runs out.
If you’re trying to do a variegated design, you may need to “mask” off parts of the object you don’t want to paint applied to- this can be accomplished using painter’s tape. Or strategically-cut cardboard or heavy paper can do this as well.
Pin for Later
As you work, make quick sweeping motions with your cans to minimize paint clumps. Also try to spray the object parallel to the ground to minimize “drippies”. Try not to go over the same area twice as this can lead to overlap spots, which won’t look good and are hard to hide, or redo.
Spray paint works best as a backdrop for large areas, you can blend colors together the way I like to do but the best spray painting ideas involve using a combo of tools such as stencils and random objects,so the resulting pattern has a distinctive shape.
Then I rotated them different ways to look “natural” each time, a quick blast with the can and there you have it.
Masking or painter’s tape can be applied strategically to protect certain areas, and then after spraying, removed to reveal cool geometric abstract patterns. You can expand on shapes a little more with basic objects like rulers, plastic cups, protractors, and triangles (the kind that drafters use) to make some cool looking work, just by placing the object down on your substrate, then spray around it, and repeat this often as you want to reach the desired effect.
Even with the best masking techniques such as those above there will always be some occasional scattering of paint color in the background. It’s diffusive, after all. Resist the need to be “perfect”!
3D Yard Art with Spray Paint
Well, I don’t like to sound like I’m dating myself here, I thought I’d show you a real genius work of spray paint art I found on Instructables – I LOVE this big flower wind spinner. it was a little complex to put together, as I found out from reading the tutorial, but do you notice how the petals of the flower have variegated (gradient) colors, it makes it pop more and look visually more stunning.
Image credit: image by tattoogirl
I highly suggest you check it out.
Have you ever worked with pvc pipe? I haven’t, I’ve been curious about it, but not actually tried it. I have seen some impressive looking work of others, though, I found another good example of three-dimensional work. Remember the pink flamingos that some people think is tacky or cliche looking? Well, there is nothing as such about this one below. This pink pvc bird is highly unique, what do you think…
Image credit: Image by crazydiymom
I don’t know about you, but I’d be proud to have that bird in my front yard. Working from scratch isn’t for everybody, so I recommend you start of simple by choosing familiar objects to practice with and embellish with your paint cans. Make sure you also have something below them to protect the surface, like a canvas drop cloth.
If you don’t collect stuff, now is the time….you never know what you could find laying around that could be turned into a piece of amazing yard art.
Let’s not forget something else that gets tossed , that could get an upcycle paint makeover…hubcaps!
Yep, you could turn those into some spiffy looking flowers.
So which of these spray paint yard art ideas did YOU like the most, let’s hear from you in the comments.
