Knocking Off Fingerprint Portraits!

I wanted come up with a project for

Seven Thirty Three Blog's Knock it off Contest!

So here is a tutorial on these "fingerprint portraits" that I knocked off from DNA11.

Digital copy of their version for $190+ each:

My version....4- 8"x10" canvases for about $30.

Their version is a digital print, mine is hand painted using acrylic paint on canvas....so their image is obviously crisper....but I really like the way these turned out!

Truly one-of-a-kind artwork!

Materials you'll need:

Pre-stretched canvas, ink pad, computer paper, scanner or photo copier, Sharpie, light table (or sunny window!), pencil, fabric, Plastic wrap, acrylic paint, brush, staple gun

• I bought 8"x10" pre stretched canvases from Michael's for about $5 each.



• Use an ink pad to make a thumbprint on to a piece of white paper. I used my scanner to enlarge the thumbprint until it filled the entire sheet of computer paper. I chose not to include the whole thumbprint, instead looked for the "most interesting" part.

• I needed to darken up, even simplify my image a bit...so I traced around the lines with a black Sharpie.


• I bought simple quilting fabric from Jo-Anne's (I was worried it may bleed, but it did fine) and cut it so that it was two inches bigger than my canvas all the way around.

• I used a light board so that I could see the image through the fabric. (**If you don't have one, place your fabric over the image and tape it up to a sunny window or sliding glass door.) You can use the light board to trace the image on to the fabric with pencil, then paint later...but I chose to skip that step and paint directly on to the fabric from the light board. If you do it this way, you will need to cover the paper image with a piece of plastic wrap because the paint will seep through the fabric.

• When you've completely transferred your image to the fabric, and the paint is dry, you can wrap it around your canvas. Stretch the fabric up and around the edges, wrap the corners like a package, and use a staple gun to attach at the wood strips on the back. Trim any excess fabric so that the canvas will lay flat against the wall surface.

The final product:

If you can trace....then you can totally handle this art project!

Thanks DNA11 for the 'Foxy Inspiration'!