MDF African Painted Elephant Decor

Want to bring element of African design/Pattern in to your home or just a big fan of any think to do with elephants then this tutorial can so you how to create your own hand painted African elephant décor for you home.

You will need:

• A MDF or PLY Wood Plain Elephant shape in any size of choosing mine was 38 x 57 cm can be found on http://www.inf.co.uk/infinite/Shapes-Department.ht...
• White primer for base coat
• Light brown paint either emulsion or acrylic paint
• Two paint rollers one for the white and another for the brown
• Medium and small paint brushes
• Pencil
• Drawing compass or a collection of circular objects to draw around
• Tulip paints in earth colours eg: Brown, yellows; reds, oranges, golds, coppers and white (These can be brought from most local craft shops or on-line however if you don't want to buy them the same effect of dots of paint can be create by dipping the end of the pant brush handle in paint.

First step: before you can begin decorating the elephant with the African pattern the wooden needs to be painted with a white primer then a brown coat of paint. Its best to applier the primer with a roller as it give a even coat but can be done by paint brush, for some of the side crevices around the trunk and tail its easier to paint with a paint brush as the roller wont fit in to these areas. After the primmer coat has dried repeat the same process with the brown paint and leave to dry.

To help with painting the African pattern on to the elephant I drew several guideline to follow whist I painted however you can do this free hand if you prefer. To draw the guide lines I first used a compass to draw circles of different sizes one large 10 cm one roughly in the centre the rest can be randomly placed at least 5 cm from each other or further. after this draw a line running around the circles like in the above picture that I drew on paper as its easier to see. Its Best the draw the lines in pencil as you can rub them out afterwards.

To begin the pattern pick a colour of tulip paint then chose

on of the guideline you have drawn on to follow with the dots of paint, each dot should be about 4 to 5 mm apart. Continue with the same colour across the chosen line. Then repeat this process on each of the guideline with a different colour. Once all the guidelines have been painted over and have dried it’s a simple process of picking another colour and following the path of the dotted lines about 5 mm alongside them. This process repeat following each line and choosing different colours each time in till all the space on the elephant has been covered.

Time to welcome the elephant in to your house by giving it a home on the mantel.