I wanted to make a Halloween Yard Cutout Painting last year, but I never got around to it. This year, I insisted that Erik come with me to Lowe's and help me pick out the board and get it cut. While we were there at Lowe's, we also picked out another smaller, cheaper board to use for the support so it could stand on its own. I got the big board cut in three even sections. This was back in September. A few weeks later, I started planning the design. Which basically meant finding pictures online that I liked and putting them together in a working composition. It was quite the process. I wanted the design to be Halloween-y but not cutsie but not too scary either. I decided that my first design (it had a large spider) didn't work since it was a cutout (the spider legs would have been too thin to cut out), so I changed the spider to a vampire.
I used the grid method to put the design on the board. It is time consuming, but it gets results. My biggest complaint about the grid is that the lines show through the paint sometimes, especially if I don't paint them over with white first. I started with the big pumpkin on the bottom.
All went well, but then I realized I needed to take up more space on the top right, so I added a moon and a monster, and then a rat at lower right the corner. The monster was fun because I used no reference; I just painted it how I pleased. I really liked the rat, but unfortunately it had to be cut out because it just did not vibe with the of the overall shape cutout. The kids weren't happy about me cutting out the rat, but I told them I'd save the rat, and I did. I had to glue another piece of wood on for the tail since part of the tail was in front of the pumpkin. I repainted the tail and glued a triangle of wood on the back so the rat could stand on its own and be a separate piece. I had a good time painting the rest, although the vampire's eyes had to be repainted thrice, since one eye was higher than the other and that bugged me. Some final touches included black glitter on the bats and little candies, since Halloween is mostly about candy.
I bought a jigsaw on Amazon. It wasn't even that expensive and, thankfully, not hard to operate. I was worried I'd cut my fingers off, but the saw is designed in such a way that one would really have to try to cut off their finger. So, I felt safe cutting. It was nice to be able to cut it myself--honestly it was kind of fun to use the jigsaw. The best thing about cutting it myself was that I did not have to beg someone from the ward to cut it for me and won't ever have to since I own a jigsaw now! I cut the board in my craft room, which was really, REALLY messy. The sawdust went everywhere, and I mean everywhere. An outside project using a jigsaw is!
Erik helped put the wooden triangle support on the back via screwed hinges, but unfortunately the screws were a bit too long for the wood, so if you look closely, you can see the screws trying to poke through. Whoops. I really like the way this turned out. I guess I'm the only one, since no one said anything about it the entire time I had it out. Well, I like this cutout painting even if no one else does!
I used the grid method to put the design on the board. It is time consuming, but it gets results. My biggest complaint about the grid is that the lines show through the paint sometimes, especially if I don't paint them over with white first. I started with the big pumpkin on the bottom.
All went well, but then I realized I needed to take up more space on the top right, so I added a moon and a monster, and then a rat at lower right the corner. The monster was fun because I used no reference; I just painted it how I pleased. I really liked the rat, but unfortunately it had to be cut out because it just did not vibe with the of the overall shape cutout. The kids weren't happy about me cutting out the rat, but I told them I'd save the rat, and I did. I had to glue another piece of wood on for the tail since part of the tail was in front of the pumpkin. I repainted the tail and glued a triangle of wood on the back so the rat could stand on its own and be a separate piece. I had a good time painting the rest, although the vampire's eyes had to be repainted thrice, since one eye was higher than the other and that bugged me. Some final touches included black glitter on the bats and little candies, since Halloween is mostly about candy.
I bought a jigsaw on Amazon. It wasn't even that expensive and, thankfully, not hard to operate. I was worried I'd cut my fingers off, but the saw is designed in such a way that one would really have to try to cut off their finger. So, I felt safe cutting. It was nice to be able to cut it myself--honestly it was kind of fun to use the jigsaw. The best thing about cutting it myself was that I did not have to beg someone from the ward to cut it for me and won't ever have to since I own a jigsaw now! I cut the board in my craft room, which was really, REALLY messy. The sawdust went everywhere, and I mean everywhere. An outside project using a jigsaw is!
Erik helped put the wooden triangle support on the back via screwed hinges, but unfortunately the screws were a bit too long for the wood, so if you look closely, you can see the screws trying to poke through. Whoops. I really like the way this turned out. I guess I'm the only one, since no one said anything about it the entire time I had it out. Well, I like this cutout painting even if no one else does!
Elisa helped a bit with covering the gridline with white paint. She got bored after not too long and that was that for her help.
The pumpkin is finished!
My vampire reference. I didn't follow it very well; it was just to give me an overall idea.
Ghost and Boo mostly done.
First and second attempt and the vampire's face. The eyes are still uneven. I fixed it once more after these pictures.
The vampire's body was easy and didn't take long.
I added a rat!
So close--but that rat had to go. I didn't like how the lower corners stuck out.
Gluing the wood pieces together so that rat could have a tail. I drilled and glued in some wooden skewers (joint method?) so the two pieces of wood would be stronger. I glued and glued, waited, sanded and repainted the tail. It was tricky to cut the rat out since it was such a small piece, but it did it. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the final product, but use your imagination.
The final product!
Nice Halloween paintings!
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