DIY Faux Oil Painting with Mod Podge

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This faux oil painting hardly feels like it should qualify as a DIY, haha! I’ve seen this technique quite a bit lately on the internet, and wanted to give it a try. It was a fun, incredibly easy and relaxing project to try. So I thought I’d share it here…sometimes you need to balance out those more challenging DIY’s with a simple project like this.

When we redid our bedroom, I had printed off some free vintage oil paintings to hang in there, and decided I wanted to give this technique a try.

I love that you can print off old artwork for free. They’re part of the public domain, and do not have copyrights, so you can download and print them for free! While I have a lot of original artwork, we have quite a few artists on both sides of our family, I think it’s fun to change up art to fit the seasons and your mood. I listed a few of the places where you can find the free public domain artwork below. This specific painting is linked below in the supplies list.

I made a quick video of this process. It’s a little easier to see the actual brushstrokes in the video than it is in the photos above. So be sure to check that out to get a better idea of how it looks.

I had my artwork printed at Walmart, it was the cheapest place I found around here. I chose a matte finish for that.

Find free printable artwork at:

• Artvee
• The Met
• National Gallery of Art
• Smithsonian
• Wikimedia Commons
• Getty Museum Collection

Supplies:

• Matte Mod Podge
• paint brush
• printed artwork

How to Create A Faux Oil Painting:

• With a paint brush, go over the original brushstrokes of the painting with the mod podge, putting it on fairly thick.
• Try and follow the original brushstrokes as much as you can.
• It will look white-ish as it’s going on, but will dry clear.
• Wait for it to dry, and then repeat, doing 2-3 coats, whatever you think looks good.
• Frame and hang your artwork!