It's so Easy to Paint Your Own Giant Wall Art
How to paint giant wall art: As well as crafting, I love to paint. Not having a formal art background has never stopped me from painting and creating.
My craft buddy Wendy and I have a thing about painting our dogs, admittedly she is a bit better at it than I am, but that doesn't stop me. By showing how Wendy painted a giant posterized portrait of her dog Lottie, I'll show you how easy it is to create your own giant wall art.
It is a bit like the painting by numbers you may have done as a child.
To create your own artwork is easier than you think, all it takes is a bit of practice and confidence. My house is full of stuff I've painted. Not because I necessarily think it's brilliant, but because I've created it and it's personal to me and my family.

After visiting art galleries and exhibitions I often come away feeling inspired. I tap into that inspiration by painting my dog Toby in the style of the artist's exhibition I have just been to.
In fact, my husband's favourite painting (chalks actually), is "the woof" instead of the scream. I painted Toby in the style of Munch after visiting the museum in Oslo, just for a bit of fun.
At Christmas I even painted a giant Christmas tree for my wall.

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A Simple Way to Paint Your Own Giant Wall Art of Your Pet
What You Need
- Giant canvas - You can either buy this from an art shop, or do what Wendy and I do which is buy our canvases in the sales or junk shops. We just then paint over the existing artwork with white emulsion paint, to create a cheap white blank canvas.
- Some form of projector, art projector, or overhead projector. You can buy overhead projectors cheap on eBay or you may be able to borrow one from a school or work.
- Paints, we tend to paint in acrylics or gouache.

Easy Way To Paint A Giant Pet Portrait
1.. First, take a picture of your pet, either with a camera or even better on your phone using one of the many photo filtering apps. Some fantastic free apps will turn any picture into geometric art.
2. Next, once you are happy with your picture print it out onto an A4 transparency. So that you can project the image onto your canvas.

3. Project the image of your pet onto the giant canvas. Then simply trace around the image with a light pencil.

4. As I mentioned in the beginning painting this giant pet portrait is a bit like painting by numbers. Using your original posterized pet portrait work out your colour chart for the wall art. Giving each colour a number and then writing the number in the right place on the canvas.
Top tip: Try and keep the number of different colours that you use to under 20. There should be this option on the posterizing app you use.


5. Next, start painting. Just start wherever you fancy and continue until finished. You may want to complete your painting over a couple of sessions.
Simply follow your paint by numbers guide. You will see your giant pet portrait come alive before your eyes.




Personally, I love Wendy's portrait of Lottie and think it looks fabulous in her house. Everyone who visits admires her artwork especially when they realize it's Lottie in the painting. I can't wait to create my own paint by numbers giant wall art of Toby.

If you like this then you may like the tutorial I did on how to create a Map Art Pet Collage portrait. Also, I have a great tutorial for embroidery on a canvas.
Lottie and Toby are often around us when we craft and we have even made them some fantastic upcycled denim dog toys to keep them occupied while we paint.







Can't,wait,to get,started,nama,stay,duncan!!!
Thank you!
Can you tell me specifically what app you used to make this picture? I love it and I tried the one you mentioned in the post but it doesn’t have nearly the detail that yours has. Thanks!
It was my friend’s son who did it in photoshop using one of their filters. There are a few other apps like Poly Gen you could try.
Love it so much, I have a boxer and collie, could you tell me how it was photoshopped, ie in what art style cos it's fantastic xx
Thank you, Helen. My friend did the photoshopping but now you can get apps that will do the geometric filter for you such as Polygen.
This is sooo amazing! I would do a giant bunny. I just got a projector although it is not an overhead art one, it is one you hook up to a dvd/computer. I bet I could do it with a picture from my computer easily though. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you. I'm sure the computer projector will probably work even better.
Thank you for your tutorial - I have always wanted to do this! I have the giant thrift canvas ready to go, and the perfect pic of my pup, however I'm struggling with getting the image just right. I am using Photoshop CC but when I posterize the pic it doesn't have jagged/sharp edges like yours, it has several more rounded edges. I can reduce the levels but it doesn't seem to get the same affect as yours. I've tried several different photos. Can you offer any tips to help me adjust my pics to get a simple look like yours, please?
Hi Katy, glad to see you are giving it ago. My friend Wendy did the initial picture on Photoshop, I know she used filters to posterize the picture, and I think she used the pen tool to sharpen some of the edges. Unfortunately she's on holiday at the moment and I can't quizz her more about it but will when she gets back. Sorry I can't be more helpful for now. What kind of dog is your pup ?
Thank you so much for this. I've been 'umming and dithering about doing something huge for my living room and this has given me the push I needed.
Judy
P,s, I love Lottie
Thank you ! and good luck with it. Do you have a pet you're going to paint ?
This is a really cool idea! I wouldn't have thought about the phone/filter to projector idea!
Thank you ! It works really well, I'm planning on doing another picture using this method.