written by marieann

I made this painted portrait for my bf’s mom a few years ago. She has a modern edgy style and she loved it. It’s much easier than it looks so I decided to give you a tutorial on how to do this.

Materials:
Posterboard
Paint

Tools:
Paintbrush
Computer w/Adobe Photoshop
Projector (either a teacher’s projector or a tv projector)
A good photograph of your subject that clearly shows the subject’s face

Instructions:
1. Open the image in Photoshop. Crop the photo so that it’s close on the subject’s face.
2. Go to Filter -> Artistic -> Blur.

3. Adjust the cutout settings until you get as blocky of image as you can while still clearly highlighting the features.

4. Click okay. Then go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance

5. Adjust the color balance (you can do at the shadow, midtones, and highlight levels) until you like the color result that you have.

6. And your image is done! I only know how to use a tv projector so that’s how the instructions will proceed. But I think you could use a school teacher one too.

7. Connect your projector to your computer. Point the projector at the wall and move it around until your image fills the posterboard (tape the posterboard to the wall).

8. Trace the lines blocking the color splotches.

9. Paint — just like painting by numbers. Be sure to mix up a lot of a particular shade to be sure you have enough.

Here’s a WIP of me making the original painting…