Hey there!
I about died when I first saw the Lord Bodner Octopus Triptych while I was feeding my brain...err, I mean, while watching Giuliana & Bill. The original is a copperplate engraving by Lord Bodner and was published in 1826 in London as part of a series studying creatures of the deep. You can purchase the framed triptych version from Natural Curiosities for $3550, a framed print from Outer Banks Trading Group for $1590 or there's another original artwork created by Julie Canale for $3550 that's just as swoon worthy as the Bodner triptych. So, feel free to fork over your hard earned cash, but might I ask why, when you can make a smaller scaled version for pennies on the dollar?
Supplies:
- Three 11x14" canvases
- Black latex paint
- White latex paint
- Small roller
- Thin paint brush
I had all of the supplies on hand, so this project cost me next to nothing. I used the small roller to paint two coats of black interior latex paint onto the front and sides of three 11x14" canvases that I had sitting around from some project I never completed. While the paint was drying, I sat and wondered how I could make my octopus look as amazing as Lord Bodner's...then I googled it. Oh, how I love the internet. It turns out that I wasn't the first to try to recreate this masterpiece. Holly from 1922 House created her wood panel version by using this free clipart, which, if I'm not mistaken, IS Bodner's octopus. I used this same image and inverted the colors in Photoshop. I sized the image to fit on the three canvases, printed, cut it out and taped it together to recreate the image. Then I cut out the large empty spaces in between tentacles.
Next, I traced out the image with pencil onto the canvases.
And finally, I got to painting with some white latex interior paint.
If you're not too much of a perfectionist, this project really is quite easy. And while, it's not the Lord Bodner $3550 version, it's pretty damn close!
Until next time,
