Introduction: Dia De Los Muertos Photo Edit

About: I love all aspects of cooking...okay that's not true, I'm not a fan of baking. I love the free form of cooking savory foods versus baking but with time, I hope to learn more techniques as I peruse the differen…

I'm a novice when it comes to photo editing but I do like to have fun.  Pixlr makes it easy to change up your look!  I also used Pixlr to make my current profile picture....

Step 1: Find a Picture

You know, one with lots of face. I've got a lot of face to work with....I should have taken off my glasses but oh well. I probably should have taken this picture away from the lace curtain or the plant....

Step 2: Pixlr.com

Go to pixlr.com/editor, don't worry; I'll play with the retro editor later.  Rotate the picture if needed.  Adjust the brightness by going to Adjustment (easy enough) and go to brightness. I made mine a little darker, it is for Halloween after all.

Step 3: Creating a Look

I'm going for a Day of the Dead look so I'll need to make myself look like a decorated skull.

First I'll click on the paintbrush, select the color black and brush size. I don't want the paint to be too dark because it'll look more like a crayon mark. If you bring down the opacity and make smooth strokes, you can layer paint on top of itself to however dark you want it. I'm also zooming in so I can layer the paint exactly where I want it.

Now it looks like I got in some crazy bar fight but you should see the other guy. I'll be using the same technique to make the skull nose. I made mine look like an upside down heart. I then took the white and did the same thing. Lowered the opacity and went over my face with white to get a paler look. Now to touch up with some gray...

Step 4: Decorate

Usually on day of the dead skulls, flowes are prominent but any cool design will do. I'll stick with the flowers.  I'm using the pencil, the sketchy type in a size 5 with 100% opacity. It's a really cool look. I also outlined my mouth for that East LA chola look.

Step 5: Color

What I like to do is use the paint bucket function to fill in the bulk, then if it doesn't fill completely, I'll go in with my paintbrush. Make sure your pencil egdes are full so the paint will fill the most area.  I went with purples and pinks..I know..so cute right?

Step 6: Background

For the background I just used a large paintbrush with 100% opacity and filled it it. Then I used my trusty sketchy pencil and made some neat-o designs.

Step 7: Retro Effects

Open up Pixlr Retro Vintage Effects.  Upload your picture. I selected the Anne look for a hint of brightness.  Move the dial on the screen for more effects.  I skipped the middle dial because I wanted to keep my picture the same but I highly recommend playing around with all the features.  I moved on to the last dial with all the frames and chose the grunge frame..I like it!  Hope you have fun using Pixlr, I do.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Photo Editing Challenge

Finalist in the
Halloween Photo Editing Challenge