For painting, I had to do various techniques for painting and texture over the course of a month. Before I do anything, I put a piece of white, thin masking tape down the middle of the platform.

First, I took our platforms and started our first layer. On the left side, I take some red paint and paint in a criss-cross fashion on random parts of the canvas. Then, I dip my brush into a bucket of water to clean off the red paint and dip it into the green paint. I do the exact same thing I did with the red paint.

Next, I try to blend the two colors, but I still want some red and green to show through. It may take a few times, but it’ll get there eventually.

Now on the right side, I try to make a gradient effect with the red and green paint. I make sure to clean off my brush and dip it into the red paint. Then, I make strokes starting at the tape and going to the opposite end. I make these strokes going down until I’ve run out of red paint. Then, clean off you brush in the bucket of water and do the same thing with the green paint, but you’re moving up towards the red paint. Do this a few times until the two colors blend in the middle!

Then I did the spatter and sponge effects to add some texture. Take a paint brush and dip it in pale pink paint. Make sure to dip the brush in some water too if the paint is too dry. Go over to a trash can and get some of the excess paint off by shake the brush into the trash can.

For the splatter effect, you can either gently hit the brush against your hand for smaller splatters, or just shake the brush for bigger splats.

On the other side, take a sponge and dip it into some light paint. Before putting on the canvas, roll the excess paint on a separate paint board. Then, lightly press the sponge onto the canvas. Make sure to use all sides of the sponge for more variety.

Next, I painted bricks and rocks! First, put some tape down on the gradient side parallel to the tape in the middle. Then, place small pieces of tape three inches apart from each other. Once that’s done, take some pink paint and dab it onto the canvas. Do the same for the orange and purple paint and I make sure I’m cleaning my brush off in between. Blend the three paint together a little bit. Once the paint is dry, peel off the tape.

For the rocks, draw some fun and funky round shapes on the sponge side. I made some big and small ones for a little variety. Clean off the paint brush and then dip into the light paint as a base. Then, decide where the light will hit the rocks for the highlights and shadows. I turned my canvas so the bricks are at the top and used the natural light as a reference. Take your clean brush and dip it into a pale yellow. You want to do this while the bas color is still wet. I had to learn that the hard way. Apply the yellow and purple on the outline of the shape and blend.

Next is painting wood. On the brick side, I dip my brush into a light brown and make horizontal strokes. I then do vertical brush strokes for the rock side. Then, I put them out to dry.

Once both sides are done, take a piece of wood or anything that can act as a ruler. Take your angled paint brush and dip it into some black paint. Using the “ruler”, make three straight vertical lines.

Once the paint is dry, I take two slightly smaller brush and dip one into white paint and the other into black paint. I use the same splatter technique as before, but then I take a wider brush and drag it from top to bottom to make the wood look aged and withered.

For the other side, I just took a brush and painted some sealant or something that gives the wood a glossy appearance.

The final project is the bark texture. I took some dry hay and some clay. I recommend wearing surgical or rubber disposal gloves because this clay will ruined your skin. I take small chunks of hay and place them onto the left side of the canvas just to make sure it will fit. Take a handful of clay and smear it onto the hay. This will make it stick to the canvas.

For the other side, I want free to do whatever I wanted. And because I was kind of fed up with the clay, I just took the excess clay and slapped it onto the canvas.

Then, I painted the bark brown and light brown. For the other side, I wanted it to look like a crime scene or something graphic, so I took some neon red paint and just went ham. I even painted my hand for a handprint.