Herringbone Painting

I have a deep, dark secret to share. I love chevron pattern. Chevron is that zigzag pattern that is literally EVERYWHERE right now. Clothes. Wallpaper. People's fingernails. Rugs. Bedding. Lamps. Furniture. It's out of control, people. This bugs me so bad because I hate it when something I like becomes crazy popular because then people think I just like it because it's trendy. 

"I swear I liked it before it was cool." -Every Hipster, Ever.

You thought I was kidding about the fingernails.

You can imagine my delight, then, when I discovered Herringbone. It's like chevron's awesome cousin who is ten times cooler because it's not all caught up in the high school popularity contest. There even seems to be quite a bit of confusion online where people call something herringbone when it is actually just chevron. That's just how cool herringbone is. Chevron wishes it was herringbone.

Chevron on the left, herringbone on the right. Chevron=zigzag, herringbone=interlocking

The point of all this is that I had been looking all over the place for a painting to go on our mantel but wasn't having much luck. I just couldn't find something that was big enough for a decent price that also had the colors I wanted. I started scouring Pinterest to see if there were any easy DIY artwork ideas I could use and stumbled upon this one. Here is my finished work:

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• 1 canvas: Mine was 30x40. I got it from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon so it cost $26. You could obviously go smaller or larger depending on where you want to put your painting.
• Painters tape in desired width: I used 2 inch wide, light adhesion painters tape and it ended up coming off in places. I recommend getting medium-adhesion so you don't run into the same problem.
• Acrylic paints for base colors: This is the fun part--pick whatever colors you want! I used 6 colors in total, plus 2 bottles of gold acrylic for the herringbone.

  

  DecoArt Metallics Splendid Gold, Sea Breeze, Midnite Blue, Coral Blush, Indian Turquoise, Peony Pink, and Desert Turquoise

• 1 can of spray paint for herringbone pattern: This is my hindsight advice. I wish I had chosen to just get a can of gold spray paint instead of painstakingly putting on coat after coat for the herringbone pattern with acrylic paint. If you don't have an area you could spray paint, then use the acrylic paint.
• Paint brushes: Don't go crazy here. Just use whatever paintbrushes you have on hand. If you are using acrylic for the herringbone pattern, I do recommend using a sponge brush.

STEPS:

1. Begin painting your colors onto your canvas. This can be as random as you like. I chose to use up and down streaks but you could do swirls or whatever you want. Every once in awhile I would step back to see if any one color needed a little more representation on the canvas. If you are using contrasting colors (like orange and blue or red and green) make sure to give them some time to dry in between so they don't blend into a brown. The nice thing about acrylics is that they dry really quickly so if you don't like what you did in one spot, just let it dry and paint right over it.

   

   Part way through painting

2. Once you are done painting, give it at least an hour to just sit and really dry. In the meantime, start cutting your painters tape into strips. I made all of mine 5.5 inches long. They don't have to be perfect, but they do need to be pretty darn close to all the same length, otherwise your herringbone pattern will look sloppy.
3. Once your painting is completely dry, you can start placing your tape on the canvas. I started at one corner and placed the first strip as close to a 45 degree angle as I could get just by eyeballing it.

   

   Here's a drawing on paper to help you visualize it since I didn't take a photo after each piece of tape.

4. Place your second strip perpendicular to the first so that the side edge is in line with the end of the first. I left about 1/4 of an inch gap in between the pieces of tape because I wanted a nice bold herringbone pattern. You can place them really close together if you want it to be more subtle.
   
5. Place your third strip next to your second and line the end up with the edge of the first. Continue following this pattern all the way across.
   
   
6. Continue your herringbone pattern until your canvas is completely covered. I had to stop several times to cut more strips of tape. When you get to the edge of the canvas just take your tape right over the edge.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7.  Once your tape is all in place, start filling in the gaps with your selected herringbone paint color. If you are using acrylic, I recommend at least 3 coats with 10 minutes to dry in between coats. If you are spray painting, I recommend at least 2 coats.
   
8. Once your herringbone paint is dry, begin to gently peel off the tape. Because I used a low-adhesion painters tape, some of it was already starting to peel back and I had several spots that I had to touch up with my base colors.