So for the longest time I have been wanting to paint my own backdrop. I saw lots of tutorials and I am not going to lie, I was afraid to attempt to do, mostly because I did not want to waste money. However, I’ve had for the longest time a 20x10 muslin white fabric that has been collecting dust in the closet. So I finally decided to put it to use, I cut it to be 10x 10 feet so I would get two backdrops from it. This is a summary of what I used and how I made backdrop number one.
I spent a total of $113.90 (£93.50) on material including probably more paint that I needed to be honest and not counting the fabric since I already had it. Below you will see what I bought for this project. Most places I read it said to used latex-based paint. I could not find any latex paint in England, all I was able to find was water base paint and that is what I used.
*White muslin fabric - Amazon
*Jumbo sponge - B&Q
*Garden Shade Season Oak - B&Q
*Shed Brush - B&Q
*GH 2.5l Vence Silk Paint - B&Q
*Vinyl Matt Estate Green 2.5l - Wickes
*Vinyl Matt Urban Nights 2.5l - Wickes
*Vinyl Matt Olive Green 2.5l - Wickes
*Harris suregrip 9in 6 sleeve poller set - Wickes
*2x Absorbent Polythene Dust sheet - Wickes
*Extension Pole 1-2m - Wickes
*Spray bottle - Wickes
I decided to not prime my muslin fabric because, to be honest, I did not feel like it LOL. However, I did test the paint in small with small samples of fabric to see if my fabric will or will not absorb a crazy amount of paint, and I found out in my opinion that I could just skip the priming portion of it.
I could not find a sea sponge which is a sponge that has holes in it making it uneven and perfect to use to add texture during the blending process of the paint. So instead I poke my own holes on the sponge and in my opinion, it did the job.
I set up my two dust sheets in my garage with the help of my husband, I wanted a deeper green like a forest but I could not find that shade so I mix my Estate green with a little bit of my Vence Silk Paint. I mixed these two without measuring, I pretty much eyeballed it. To be honest I was not worried about the color being perfect. I started to paint from the middle out since I knew I wanted the middle to be slightly lighter than the edges. I worked my way out making the edges darker. Once that was done I did a layer of my green Olive in the middle, you want to do all this while the paint is wet. Once I put the paint in the middle, I wanted more texture so using a spray bottle I put some of the season oak paint and watered it down.
I started to spray that all over the backdrop, not crazy amount just enough to make a subtle difference, then with the sponge I started to paddle around the middle to blend the edges of the light green with the darker green and the drops of brown that were in my way. After that, I wanted the edges of my backdrop to be darker so I added brushstrokes of garden shade oak and blended with the sponge ones again. Once this process was done I decided to hang my backdrop then I realized that was probably a bad idea. To avoid wrinkles I put it back on the ground and decided to just let it dry on the floor.
After all was done I realized I had plenty of paint left and I am planning on painting a second backdrop, the backdrop was 100% dry in less than 24 hours. When it dried out it almost felt like a canvas backdrop. It felt thick and tad stiff, but nothing that concerned me. I decided to roll it up on one of my seamless paper rolls, I put it away and a few weeks later I took it out for a spin and I am not going to lie I absolutely LOVE IT!! In my opinion it looks great what do you think?
These images where done with my homemade backdrop. I hope you guys find this information useful.
