Mar 4, 20222 min read

Mixed Media Shamrock

Updated: Mar 5, 2022

Have you ever created something fantastic when you weren’t really planning to at all? That’s what happened with my Shamrock’s & Shenanigans painting. It started as just a playful exercise in creativity & turned in to a unique DIY decor piece for St. Patrick Day.

Part 1 of this project has the step by step instructions for the shamrock design process. If you want to paint along with the video tutorial you can do it here.

For the shamrock design, I started by taping off a square section in my mixed media pad. It’s a good idea to stick the painters tape to your clothing first to reduce the stickiness. That way it won’t tear the paper when you remove it later.

Next, I used a flat paintbrush and bright green paint to fill in the square area. I used messy brush strokes.

Then I added in white paint & let it lightly blend here and there, but not too much.

Now comes the fun part! Using white paint and a tool of your choosing, create a texture on your background. I used an old toothbrush, but you could use a cotton swab, a kitchen baster, crumpled tinfoil, a plastic fork, or any number of objects.

With a round paintbrush I painted loose shamrock shapes using a medium shade of green.

Then I added small dark green shamrocks with a filbert paintbrush.

I used a liner paint brush & white paint to add whimsical curly cues.

The final touches on the background we’re done by using green paint pens to create patterns inside the bigger shamrocks. Make sure the paint is dry before drawing on it with the pens.

With the background complete, I used a large filbert brush to paint a large green shamrock. I began with a medium shade of green.

Then I added some highlights using light olive green.

I used a darker green to outline and accent the shapes. It’s fun to just let the colors blend & mix without rinsing your brush i between.

I painted a smaller dark green shamrock in the center of the large one. I had metallic green paint to add some shimmer.

When all the paint was dry, I used a white Uniball gel pen to doodle details.

I used a wooden skewer and white paint to add a dot design. It’s somewhat meditative adding dots. I used pearl white paint for the centers of the clovers.

The final touch is adding green glitter glue to add some sparkle!

It’s actually better to remove the tape before the paint cures completely. This helps avoid your design pealing up with the paint. Carefully pull the tape on an angle away from the design.