Adventures in Laptop Painting

Have you ever seen those artists that paint on everything? And I mean EVERYTHING. Shoes, jackets, phone cases, walls, cars, airplanes… It’s crazy. But also… really inspiring.

So I recently decided to try it out for myself.

It all begins with a question: What if I painted on my laptop? What would I paint? Would my acrylics stick to the plastic surface? What if I accidentally spilled my paint water on my laptop??

There are always risks. There’s always the chance that it just won’t work out. But I decided I would try it out anyway.

But what to paint? After much thought (…okay, it wasn’t THAT much thought) I decided to go with llama-faced Kuzco from “The Emperor’s New Groove.” Because who wouldn’t want a llama face permanently painted on the back of their laptop?

Keeping my paint water behind an old bath towel barrier, I started with a base of white. Double and even triple coated in some places.

Then I sketched my design on a sheet of paper and used the old-school method of scribbling graphite on the back to transfer my design to my blank, white, plastic canvas. (And I’m afraid I didn’t take any good pictures of this part.)

Now, the real fun begins. Bringing in the color!

(Ignore the grey smudges, please. 😝)

This was really easy because it’s all just flat color, excluding the background and lettering where I did a little gradient effect.

The only trouble came when I accidentally made his skin tone too grey. And while I was mixing a new color…

…this happened. See those brown globs of paint? *cue miniature panic attack*

But all’s well that ends well, I cleaned up the paint, no problem, and went on to mix a more saturated color and repaint it.

Then I retraced my outline with a sharpie, just so it looked all nice and even. And lastly I got out my sealer.

And that is when the real trouble began. I got out my big paintbrush and started spreading the sealer around… but it was picking up my black paint and smearing it around as well. Much internal screaming may have happened at this point.

I thought the paint was dry enough! But maybe not…. and then I realized, it wasn’t the paint smearing. It was the sharpie ink! *smacks forehead*

In hindsight, if I ever decide to do something like this again, I’ll seal it first and then sharpie over it. Or maybe just retrace my design with acrylics. Or not retrace my design at all.

But for now, I had to work with what I had. I carefully cleaned up the black streaks as best as I could and continued spreading the sealer a little more cautiously.

And I was finished!

It may not have turned out as good as it could have, but it didn’t turn out that bad either. So far there hasn’t been any chipping or rubbing off, and I learned a few lessons along the way. I’m already thinking about doing another one. Maybe some flowers or something on my saxophone case. 😏

I hope you all enjoyed seeing my process along with all my mishaps and mistakes, and I hope this has inspired you in one way or another to create something new and epic!

~ Chalice