Split Canvas Grain Belt Sign

I had always wanted to paint a picture on multiple canvases, but it seemed so expensive to buy so many canvases.  The vision for this painting popped into my head as soon as soon as I saw the square canvases at Big Lots for only $5 each!  I had to make something with them!  

The photo I used to make the painting is one I actually took myself in Minneapolis.  I zoomed in on the photo to get the size I wanted.

Next, I printed the photo on graph paper and cut it into squares.  I split the picture up into sections, so that I could easily section off the canvases and draw the picture to scale.

 
Before drawing the picture on the canvas, I painted all sides of the canvas a light grey so there would be no white showing.  I then painted the signs in grey tones using acrylic paints.

 I got ansy to see it on the wall, so I made Chris hang it up one night 'just to see how it looked'.  I loved it so much it never came down, so some of the bottle cap edges are lacking definition.  I think it adds character to the painting.  If you look close you can still see the pencil marks I drew.  Chris bugs me that it's been up for years and I've never finished it, but I like it just how it is!