The hardest part about this project was getting them to sit still to get a photo that worked. Although we have hundreds of ADORABLE photos of them, unless they're standing at a perfect profile, they just look like lumps in a silhouette. For example: this photo is probably the cutest thing you've ever seen, but the outline is just a blob:
So here are the photos I went with, after finally getting them to sit still long enough to take one:
As I was researching ways to take a photo and turn it into a silhouette, I came across many different ways. Some people used a photo altering program to create an outline on the computer and erase everything else, and I tried that, but it was not so good. My canvases were larger than printer paper, so just printing it and cutting it out was not an easy option (plus we're ALWAYS out of ink when I need it haha.) The remedy came when I realized that our computer screen (really my husband's) is almost as big as my canvases, (I know, a bit excessively large, something like 23 inches,) but he's a software engineer, so what would you expect? So I cropped the photos and opened them where they showed full screen, then taped tissue paper directly to the screen and traced it lightly with pencil. Then I cut out the tissue paper, taped it onto the canvas, traced it onto the canvas, and then painted it with acrylic paint.
I do not recommend using metallic paint for this project: it looks nice, but it was way too hard to hide the brush strokes, as you can see in the top painting; the brown matte paint turned out looking much more professional, because the canvas was able to absorb it better.
Total project cost: $5.50: I got the canvases on sale in a two pack, with a 40% off coupon! All I needed was two small bottles of acrylic which were on sale for 97 cents each! I ended up going back the next day to buy the same size canvas and covered it with left over fabric from some throw pillows I made. Turned out looking great!
No comments:
Post a Comment