sketchbook anchor wall art

I am happy to report that baby preparations around the house are over and it feels good! I hung the last of the art on the walls of her room and I thought I would share this easy little project that my husband and I collaborated on a while back.

I have shared in previous posts that the theme/colors of the room are all inspired by our passion (that we can't wait to share with our daughter)- the ocean. One day I had the idea to create an anchor that looked like a sketchbook drawing to hang on the wall in a grouping of ocean art.

I started out getting my ideas down on paper and then hit up my husband for a little help

While my husband works by day as a structural engineer he is a SUPER talented artist and can draw anything- see more about him here. We like to collaborate on creative ideas and projects and this was a perfect project!

We used thick water color paper and he drew a large version of my anchor sketch and gave it perfect proportion and dimension (something I am NOT good at!) and then handed it off to me.

I filled the drawing with watercolors.

Added shading and layers of color.

And then I used a black pen to add details.

Next we cut out the anchor

and glued it to a scrap piece of cardboard. While I would have loved to have created this project from a big piece of scrap wood- it will be hanging above the changing table and I wanted to keep things light weight on the wall.

We cut it out of the cardboard and add black acrylic paint around the edges.

Last, I added a few more black lines and details.

Then we hung it on the wall in the middle of a grouping of ocean inspired photos and art.