Valentine's Day Painting

"Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." -William Shakespeare

I made this easy Valentine's day inspired painting, that I am hoping will be easy to explain the process.  It can go up now, and carry on through spring and summer.

Materials:

• Blue, White, Dark Green, Medium Green, Light Green, Yellow, Dark Brown, Light Brown, and Black Paint
• Different Sized Brushes
• Primed Canvas
• Water Dish
• Palette
• Painting Cloth

Directions:

1. On the palette, mix some blue and white paint together. Using a large brush paint the top half of the canvas. The paint does not have to go all the way to the sides of the painting. Let dry.
2. Starting at the edge of the sky, take a medium sized brush and add the dark green for the grass by making small X's along the way.  Do this for a few rows.  Then layer the medium green onto the canvas in the same way, mixing the dark green of the last row with the medium green of new row.  Add a few rows in this way.  Continue this process for the light green and yellow.
3. With white paint, make little circles next to each other to form the top part of a cloud.  Add a bit more white paint to the light blue you made for the sky.  Mix together, add use to paint the bottom part of the clouds.
4. With the dark green paint, use a small flat brush and start with the tip and work out to create trees along the grass edge. Let dry.
5. Paint the outline of a heart around the main part of your painting.  From the heart out towards the edge of the painting, fill in with brown paint.  With the light brown paint, add stripes in small amounts to create a wood like grain. Add a few stripes of small white paint as well to create more wood like grains.
6. Add a few dark green lines to the left side of the inside of the hear to create long grasses.  Starting from the left grass corner and working down add small white dots.  Closer to the center turn the dots into six petaled flowers.  Add a dot of yellow to the center of the flower.
7. Taking a dry brush, adding some white paint, and brushing some off, create a faint line of white around the heart on the wood grain part.  
8. With the black paint create lines to look like the wood has three pieces.  Let dry.
9. With a small with brush paint on the the embellishments as seen in the painting above.
10. Add your name or initials to the painting (I tend to do this on the side of the canvas).