Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Halloween Fright Self Portrait

I created a specialized Halloween self-portrait this year.  With no make-up and an unflattering style for my hair, I asked my hubby to take my photograph.  I almost ran screaming from the computer screen the first time I saw it!  And that was before I used Photoshop to make it look even worse.

Using tools in Photoshop, I pulled the corners of my mouth down and arched my eye brows upward in a menacing way.  I added lots of wrinkles - gasp! - or should I say, added more wrinkles.  I widened my nose.  Then started playing around in Photoshop to add "effects".

Was that tiny gust of wind that went over my arms?  Are there shadows moving over there?  When I saw the final result, I shivered and darted a quick look over my shoulder!

After I printed the image, I gathered the supplies. 

1 framed mirror - (only $1 from the Dollar Tree)
2 sets of Halloween stickers ($1 each on sale at Michael's craft store)
1 can of oven cleaner spray
1 pair of disposable plastic gloves

I took the cardboard backing off the mirror and placed the printed image face down on the back of the mirror.  Then traced with a thin-line sharpie around the photo so that I would know the exact spot to spray the oven cleaner.

I sprayed the oven cleaner on the back of the mirror and used my gloved finger to spread it around, staying within the traced lines. 

Then I went off and did something else and came back about 20 minutes later.  I put my gloves back on and wiped the oven cleaner off.  Well, nothing happened!  It didn't take the silvering off.  Drat!  (That's my favorite four-letter word.) 

Next I used a butter knife to scrape back and forth on the back side of the mirror, but staying within the marked image lines.  I was careful not to scrape too hard and actually make scratches on the glass.  Then I sprayed oven cleaner again.

After 20 more minutes, I put back on the gloves and again wiped the oven cleaner off the back of the mirror.  Waa-laa!  The mirror silvering came away, leaving the knife scraped edges.  I loved the way it looked!

Using blue painter's tape, I taped the photo into the clear opening and then replaced the cardboard backing. Now it was time to embellish the front side of the mirror with the Halloween stickers. 

Portrait complete!  I put it on the table in our foyer and for more Halloween effect, added a bowl of candy and some of my granddaughter's Halloween goodies.

Here's my Halloween Fright portrait!


It's okay.  You can gasp and scream!




Double-click on the images to see a larger view.







Click here to see an even more frightening close-up of the final result.















Please comment below.  I would love to hear from you.  It's alright, I know I look a fright!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, that's definitely you!

Unknown said...

Gee thanks. I think. :-)