How to "Halloweenify" Your Photos

Have you ever decorated your home for Halloween and realized your wholesome family photos don’t match the Halloween theme? Family photos are cute, nostalgic and pleasant; they couldn’t be farther from “Halloweeny.”  These instructions will guide you to “Halloweenify” your family photos in ­­­ minutes per photo. You don’t have to be an artist to make your photos match your Halloween décor.  With the use of dry erase markers you will be able to turn your family into witches, cats and monsters accompanied by bats.

For this project, I am going to show you how to draw a cat and a bat. I will also provide examples of other characters that may give you other ideas.

Materials needed:
Framed photographs with a glass or plastic barrier
Dry-erase markers
White-board eraser
Glass cleaner
Rag or paper towel

Step 1:

Spray glass cleaner on the frame and wipe clean with a rag or paper towel.
Caution: Do not draw directly on your prints. It will permanently damage your photos. Only select photos in frames with a glass or plastic barrier.

Step 2:

Imagine what Halloween characters will look best on this print?

Does mom look like a vampire? Does dad look like Frankenstein? If you aren’t sure, begin to draw. If you don’t like how something turns out, try something different. With dry erase markers it is easy to simply erase and start again.

In the following example I imagined a cat and bats.

Step 3: Cat

Start by drawing pointy ears over the top of your subject’s head.

Step 4: Cat

Next outline the cat’s head. Be sure to cover the entire top portion of the subject’s head.

Step 5: Cat

Fill in the cat’s head but leave the inside of the ears blank.

Step 6: Cat

Add a nose and whiskers.
Over the nose of the person in the photograph draw a circle and fill it in. On each side of the face, near the nose, draw three straight lines which angle off of a central point.

Step 7: Cat

Draw a tail.
Start the tail at the bottom of the subjects back. The tail should be a curvy, thick line.

Step 8: Cat

Fill in the ears with red. Adjust the shape of the ears if needed.

Step 9: Bat

To draw a bat start with a line with a slight point.

Step 10: Bat

After the line draw an “M”.

Step 11: Bat

Add an identical line with a slight point on the other side of the “M”. Underneath the first slightly pointed line draw a slightly curved line in the opposite direction.

Step 12: Bat

Add another curved line veering downwards.

Step 13: Bat

On the opposite side of the bat draw a curved, downward swooping line.

Step 14: Bat

Connect the curved lines from each of the previous 2 steps (12 and 13) with another curved line.

Step 15: Bat

Fill in the bat.

Step 16: Finished Product

Now you’re an expert! You can use your new skills to “Halloweenify” all of your photos!

Step 17: Hang or Display Your Photos

Step 18: Other Examples

Step 19: De-Halloweenifying

At the end of the season, when you are ready to “de-Halloweenify” your photos, simply use glass cleaner and a rag to remove the dry eraser.

Step 20: Thank You

I hope you enjoyed “Halloweenifying" your photos! You can use these techniques to decorate your photos for every Holiday. With dry erase markers there is no risk to your prints (so long as you have a glass/plastic barrier) so you can experiment!

Try pumpkins and turkeys for Thanksgiving, or Santa hats and Christmas trees during the Christmas season. This is a great craft to do as a family and can be used as a traditional part of your seasonal decorating.