Some art ideas I’ve been toying with over the last few weeks are projects to share with you that are simple enough to be done in under and hour so you can complete it in one sitting, but substantial enough so you feel like you created something beautiful.
I’ve come up with three things that I bet you look for when creating art:
-
Art ideas that are quick & easy
-
Art ideas that don’t require a ton of art supplies
-
Art ideas that make you happy…after all, that’s why we make art right?
So taking these three points, I’ve come up with this:
-
Acrylics are a great medium to use when making art because they dry so fast.
-
Using some type of animal silhouette is a great way to make a fun art project into something bold, yet requires very little effort. Yet, I actually think the hardest part of any type of silhouette art is finding the stencil. That for me is over thinking, because there are so many clipart websites out there that have free animal silhouettes that you can download, print (then cut out to make a stencil or use as collage).
-
Upcycling existing art that could be a Book of Backgrounds page, old art you did when learning, damaged art that you can cut down into smaller pieces are great foundation pieces that you can use right away and you don’t need to buy anything special.

Upcycle Existing Art That Has Texture

Simple Lines Can Create Bold Statements
Whatever art ideas you come up with, it should be something that makes you happy right? I always ask my students what type of art do they like to create… what makes them happy. This should always be the goal.
To break up the video ahead of time, at the part where I’m stenciling, this is where you could use your own cut out from clipart to make your own stencil or cut out the silhouette clipart and collage that on your piece. This is how you can customize this art project to what you love.
Art Ideas Featuring Animal Silhouettes
Substrate: Book of Backgrounds #30
Palette:
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics
- Phthalo Green-Blue: PG7 – DMFA24
- Cerulean Blue: PB35 – DMFA06
- Carbon Black: PBk7 – DMFAS05
- Titanium White: PW6 – DMFA39
DecoArt Metallic Lustre*
- Brilliant Turquoise – ML11C
- Black Shimmer – ML05C
- DecoArt Media White Gesso – DMM18**
- DecoArt Media Matte Medium – DMM20
- DecoArt Americana DuraClear High Gloss Varnish – DS128***
Stencil: DecoArt Americana Decor: Birds & Bees – ADS204
Brushes: bristle and synthetic brushes for the general work and a varnish brush if you have one, otherwise, use a large soft brush for varnishing.
General:
- Scissors
- Grey Palette Paper
- Paper Towels and/or Baby Wipes
- Water Bucket
** If you are working on raw cardstock, wood or other unprimed substrate, you may want to apply a layer of gesso so the paint will adhere and blend better.
***Use whatever varnish finish you want.
Free ClipArt Websites
What are some of your art ideas?
It’s easy to see that you can customize the colour to whatever you want by just choosing different paint.
What would be your favourite colour and what animal would you choose in your artwork?
I’d love to hear your thoughts so please comment below.
My prefer colour is tiffany ,my prefer animal is Owl . My prefered art is animals silhouette on tree background
Hi Gaetano! what colour is Tiffany?
Hi Gisele
Tiffany as I have see around web corresponde to this
the image link you posted was broken (it was too long) so I’m posting a picture of what you were trying to link to. It’s a beautiful color.
I love birds and the color turquoise so I really like this piece. I would either use birds or wolves in an art piece. I plan on trying the double stenciling in the near future.
love the idea of using wolves.. I have it written down for a future project 🙂
My favorite colors right now are grays and browns, with some dark blues and teals and blacks thrown in. If I did this type of painting I’d want to do a siloutte of a cat or dog. If I could find a picture of my dog in silloutte i would print it out and cut it out and do him.
that’s a great way of making it personal, print the photo on regular paper and cut out.
I’d be in with wolves or dogs too with some sort of tree in a kind of indigo. And I love those waxes too … haven’t tried double stenciling so far but will !!
a wolve piece is coming up in the future 🙂
Thanks for letting us know which background was used,…unfortunately it was one I hadn’t done. However, I do have other backgrounds I could use. My favorite color is a blue turquoise. I would probably use my favorite bird stencil. Thanks for leaving the links to find more! Love the technique used and will be trying out soon!
that’s the great part, you can use any background for this. Hope you give it a try.