Haunted Family Portrait

 Family Portrait found here

A few weekends ago, while in the throes of redecorating our house for Halloween, I realized I needed something spooky to hang above the fireplace.  Hmmm....what could possibly scare the living pants or daylights (or dead nightlights if you will) off of everyone who saw it???  Thinking....Thinking....Thinking.  I KNOW!!!  A portrait of me - well actually a portrait of my family that included me

Haunted Family Portrait

Looking a little less scary than normal
 

Printing Process:

Here are the steps I took to makeover my family, just in case you'd like to try this with a photograph of your family.   I scanned an old photograph, taken when my children were much younger - fortunately, my husband and I haven't aged at all - then downloaded the photo onto Picnik a free online photo shop. Once on the site these are the "click by click" steps that were used to recreate our image into a somewhat haunted family portrait:  (1) click on "Create", (2) "Effects", (3) "Posterize" - once here, work with photo until the colors are just right then save (4) "featured"  - play with Picnik's Halloween features.  I used "vampire eyes", "masks", and 'Halloween stickers"  Once the recreated image is perfect save it. Then save it into a file or print it.  And you're done.
Although I loved the image, I wanted a larger print to hang.  So I printed a copy of my saved image, took the copy to Kinko's and had them blow it up into a 22 x 36 inch poster size print on paper.

Family Portrait - Painting in Process

 Original photo and larger printed image in the process of being painted.

Since the Kinko's copy came out darker and with less detail than I wanted, and since I really wanted a hand painted portrait above the fireplace - I decided to paint the Kinko's print. For this, I used a gray-scale color scheme and painted with a combination of black and white acrylic paints.  When finished painting, I covered the entire print with Mod Podge Gloss Varnish. 

Portrait Finished and Looking Spooky

I wanted the painting to have more stability when hung so I used a spray adhesive on the back and attached it to foam core board.  I couldn't quite get the painting to lay flat against the board without wrinkles.  Therefore, when doing this again I'll take it to a framing shop and have them adhere for a more professional finish!

My little batty family

Hanging above the fireplace

Along with a black and orange color scheme.  I don't think I'm going to want to take our portrait down after Halloween!