Knockoff: DIY Lord Bodner's Octopus Triptych

I about died when I first saw the Lord Bodner Octopus Triptych while I was feeding my brain...err, I mean, while watching Giuliana & Bill.  The original is a copperplate engraving by Lord Bodner and was published in 1826 in London as part of a series studying creatures of the deep.  You can purchase the framed triptych version from Natural Curiosities for $3550, a framed print from Outer Banks Trading Group for $1590 or there's another original artwork created by Julie Canale for $3550 that's just as swoon worthy as the Bodner triptych.  So, feel free to fork over your hard earned cash, but might I ask why, when you can make a smaller scaled version for pennies on the dollar?

Supplies:

• Three 11x14" canvases
• Black latex paint
• White latex paint
• Small roller
• Thin paint brush

I had all of the supplies on hand, so this project cost me next to nothing.  I used the small roller to paint two coats of black interior latex paint onto the front and sides of three 11x14" canvases that I had sitting around from some project I never completed.  While the paint was drying, I sat and wondered how I could make my octopus look as amazing as Lord Bodner's...then I googled it.  Oh, how I love the internet.  It turns out that I wasn't the first to try to recreate this masterpiece.  Holly from 1922 House created her wood panel version by using this free clipart, which, if I'm not mistaken, IS Bodner's octopus.  I used this same image and inverted the colors in Photoshop.  I sized the image to fit on the three canvases, printed, cut it out and taped it together to recreate the image.  Then I cut out the large empty spaces in between tentacles.

Next, I traced out the image with pencil onto the canvases.

And finally, I got to painting with some white latex interior paint.

If you're not too much of a perfectionist, this project really is quite easy.  And while, it's not the Lord Bodner $3550 version, it's pretty damn close!