Posterized Art Portrait with Stain on a Wooden Canvas

My little sister and I are 10 years apart. I endured a lot of BROTHERS before I finally got a sister, and I’ve always cherished her so much, despite our age difference. We didn’t fight much growing up, because we weren’t interested in the same things. I liked boys and cheerleading, and she liked dressing up her doll. And that was okay!

But my little sister Anna is alllll grown up now, at the ripe age of 24. And she’s darling.

She’s been living in Europe for the past two years. First Brussels, Belgium… and now Prague, Czech Republic; working as a teacher at the International Schools and just basically living THE DREAM.

When this picture (below) popped up as her FB profile pic awhile back, I loved how edgy and artsy it is. And it inspired a new project!

She’s very Audrey Hepburn meets Twiggy. Am I right?!

Conveniently, right around the same time, a new stain company called PureColor contacted me, and it was a match made in heaven! Their unique eco-friendly packaging, and unexpected color variety had me itching to play around and try some new techniques!

*This post is sponsored by PureColor. Thank you for supporting the amazing brands that make Reality Daydream possible! This post contains affiliate links.*

Once I had finalized my idea, the first step was to make the image of Anna ‘Posterized’. This is a really simple photo-editing process that can be done on PicMonkey! I created this infographic below to help you make your image Posterized too! It’s simple!

Once your image is Posterized, print it on a piece of basic printer paper. Then trace the lines onto a transparency with a fine sharpie.

Nick glued a couple pine boards together to make me a wooden ‘canvas’, and I sanded it with my orbital sander until it was suuuper smooth. Then I used my overhead projector to project the image on the transparency onto the wood, and traced with a pencil.

TIME TO STAIN! I squirted a tiny amount of stain (I chose the Cactus shade for my first layer) into a dixie cup, and I’m ready to go!

I kept the posterized image handy so I could reference which layers get which shades. So I started by doing the second-to-darkest shade on the posterized image.

Then I came in with red (Marsala) and then yellow (Lemon).

I chose this moody gray with purple undertones for the darkest share on the posterized image. It’s called ‘Adega’, and it’s my absolute favorite! Don’t be creeped out by this next image… I’m going to do the eyes NEXT!

Finally… the EYES. This part takes a steady hand, but I’m not saying a glass of wine won’t make it easier…. because it totally did for me. I used a teeny little brush, and did several coats of the Adega color, because I wanted the eyes to really pop!

After everything was good and dry, I took an eraser to all the pencil lines that were still visible, and they came off perfectly! Then I sealed using PureColor’s water-based sealant PureShield Protect. It’s amazing how this step truly deepens the color and makes the woodgrain pop through even more. You can see how one half of the face is raw wood, and the other half has a coat of sealer.

I ordered a sleek black frame (and by ordered, I mean I asked Nick to build), and I love how it just adds to the artsy edgy-ness of this whole piece of art!

The glossiness of the sealer makes it really hard to photograph, so you’ll just have to imagine it without the glare.

Even though it’s not perfect,  love how it turned out and that it’s something different than what my normal design tastes lean towards. The abstract nature of this artsy look is such that you can screw up and nobody will ever know! My mom is an art teacher, and loves weird art (and she loves Anna), so I think I’ll give this portrait to her. I imagine she misses Anna a lot! Just like us <3

~Bethany

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