Masking Tape Khatam Artwork {Tutorial}

March 6, 2018May 22, 2020 acraftyarab Craft tutorial, Plaid Ambassador

Creating this masking tape khatam artwork is a great way to learn about negative and positive space. Khatam is Arabic for eight point star.

I recently had Martha Stewart watercolor acrylic craft paints sent as my role as Plaid Ambassador and I knew right away I wanted to create a teaching khatam painting. Khatam is the Arabic word for eight point star.

We had used masking tape on a Allah painting before. Allah is the Arabic word for God. Keeping along the same lines of using mini canvases (they are inexpensive to use with kids and don’t take up a lot of wall space), we used them again to create our masterpiece.

Artwork Supplies

To start, turn your canvases over to tape the backs.

Make sure to tape all four to each other.

You may need to turn it over to make sure everything is lined up. Next use the watercolors paints to draw lines with each color.

You can add more colors. Make the canvas disappear by adding water to blend in the colors.

Let your masterpiece dry, we left ours in a window sill for a few hours, and add masking tape in a square shape. Check your corners to make sure they are 90 degrees.

Make a line by creating a smaller box inside. Use the Xacto to cut the tape, to make sure your line is continuous.

Paint the diamond shape you just made white.

Let the white paint dry and remove the tape, gently.

Next, you will need to turn your artwork, tape a new square shape and paint it white.

Let the second square dry and remove the tape.

Turn your artwork over and remove the tape on the back. Add saw tooth hangers to the back and hang the frames up. It looks like one piece, but it’s actually four. Impress your friends, especially if you have a white wall, with the optical illusion of a floating khatam with negative and positive space.