How To Make A Painting With Your Child’s Cremated Remains

As a parent, it can be incredibly difficult to lose a child at a young age. In your grief, you are asked to make some difficult decisions and you may have decided to go through with cremation. Parents often feel comforted by remains that are displayed in the home. You may feel that you want to honor your child in a special way at some point though. You have many different options available to you, and one good suggestion is to create a piece of painted artwork with the remains.

Get Your Supplies

There are a wide variety of businesses and artistic professionals who are willing to use your child's ashes to create artwork. These individuals mix a small amount of your child's remains into either acrylic or oil paints and landscaped scenes or portraits are created. You can create your own artwork as well as long as you mix the paint correctly.  

Before you begin making your creation, go to your local art supply store and purchase a variety of oil paints. These paints are thick and they will not clump up when you add the ashes. This can happen if you add solid materials to acrylic paints. Buy some linseed oil as well and purchase a pre-stretched canvas that is 8 inches by 12 inches or choose one that is 10 inches by 12 inches. Find some oil paintbrushes as well. Consider purchasing some sable haired brushes, because the bristles will not break or fall out while you paint. Locate a wooden painter's palette as well, so you can spread and mix your paint.

Prepare Your Paint

Once you have all of your supplies, use a pencil to draw your composition out onto your canvas. This is best if you want to create a portrait or landscape scene. If you are interested in creating a more freeform painting, then you do not need to do any drawing. Set your canvas on a table and then squeeze a pea sized amount of paint from each of your paint tubes onto your palette. Use twice as much white so you can blend while you paint.

Use a small spoon to scoop some of the ashes out of your son or daughter's urn. Sprinkle about one-sixteenth of a teaspoon of the ashes over each paint color. Use a clean toothpick to mix the ashes into the paint. The paint will likely be too thick to paint with, so add one drop of linseed oil to each color and mix with the toothpicks again.

Form Your Artwork

Start your painting by adding the darkest colors to your canvas first. This is best so that dark greens, blues, and reds do not sit over lighter colors and create a muddy appearance. Add your lighter tones afterwards, but make sure you clean off your paint brush thoroughly first. Turpentine and other paint thinner materials can ruin your paintbrush so add five drops of linseed oil to your brush and move the brush across a cotton cloth or paper towel to clean it.  

Once you add the lighter tones of paint, use white in between the dark and light colors to blend them together. If you want to add highlights to your painting, then make sure to allow the painting to dry for 24 hours. This timeframe should be sufficient, because the linseed oil you added to your paint will help with the drying process and allow you to add layers of paint.

Finish Your Piece

Once you are done painting, you need to allow your artwork to dry completely. Generally, it takes between two and seven days for oil paint to dry. You do not want to set your artwork in a dark place though, or linseed oil may work its way upward and create a yellow film over the top of your painting.  Set your painting in the sunlight instead.  

Consider placing a nail in your wall and hang the painting in your living room or dining room. This way the painting will be exposed to the sun and you will not have to worry about dirt and debris settling on the surface of the painting. Once the oil paint is dry to the touch, you can place a frame around the artwork. If you purchased a pre-stretched canvas, then the painting will be considered a standard size piece of artwork. This means you can purchase a frame at your local art store that has already been constructed. You can invest in professional framing as well.

If you have had to deal with the death of a child, then you may have your son or daughter's cremated remains in your home. These remains can be utilized in countless different ways so you can honor your child in a personal manner. One good option is to use the ashes to create an oil painting. For more information and ideas, contact a company like Care Memorial Cremation Solutions.


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