Make Your House A Family Museum

How about we change grandma's wall of photos by a wall covered with large format portraits of your relatives painted by you? What would you think about giving grandpa a picture of his grandsons painted by you in any size you want? It's easy and fun, besides it is cheap and it can be a great birthday or Christmas present. All you need is a camera, a projector, and a computer. Make a list of the people you want to immortalize in your works of art and set up appointments with them to take the photos you want to reproduce. It may be only photos of their faces and shoulders, or a full length shot in the middle of a forest. The possibilities are infinite! Download the photos to your computer and organize them. Open the first photo and enlarge it as much as you can. Make sure it covers as much space possible on your screen. Connect the projector to the computer and set it up to project your screen on the wall. You will see your photograph in large size. Stick construction paper just where the image is projected. By getting the projector near or far the wall you may change the picture size. You can also do it by modifying the picture size on your computer screen. If you don't have a projector, you may trace directly over your computer screen. Using a pencil outline the shapes you see projected. Do it lightly in case you want to erase the lines later on. It's done! Put down the construction paper and rush to find paints such as gouache, pastels, water colors, or any other material you may think of to color your new creation. Surprise your mother, brother, aunt, grandmother, or boyfriend with your masterpieces! Take photos of your creations and upload them in Facebook, Flickr, or create a blog about your family or your artwork. In this way millions of people will have access to your artistic ideas and a little bit of your family history. You will see how your works inspire others, and is very likely that people start talking about them. If it happens, take advantage of your fame and create a painting workshop to teach your technique to others. With this idea you may turn your world into art!