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How to Make Giant Mosaic Posters

Homemade art is a great way to express yourself, capture memories and decorate your home or office. When you make really creative art work, it can become a great conversation piece. For instance, instead of just putting up a photo of your friends on vacation at the beach, you can create your own poster of the image. Creating a mosaic poster -- an image comprised of a conglomerate of smaller images and pieces -- would be more original than just making a drawing of the photo. Also, if you aren't great at drawing or painting, creating a mosaic poster can allow you to express yourself artistically without those skills.

Things You'll Need

  • Enlarged photo
  • Pencils
  • Tracing paper
  • Carbon transfer paper
  • Masking tape
  • Large poster board
  • Scissors
  • Magazines
  • Construction paper
  • Photographs
  • Glue
  • Gesso
  • Paint brush
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Instructions

  1. Creating an outline for your mosaic

    • 1
      If the new dimensions of your photo are not proportional to the original dimensions, the image may end up awkwardly stretched.

      Enlarge your favorite photo at a copy and print center to your desired size. Make sure the new size is proportional to the size of the original photograph to avoid distortion of the image.

    • 2

      Place the tracing paper over your enlarged photo and thoroughly trace the lines of the images.

    • 3

      Tape carbon transfer paper to the tracing paper with the carbon side facing outwards. Only place tape on the edges of the papers.

    • 4

      Tape the carbon paper/tracing paper to your poster board -- with the tracing paper facing up -- so the image does not shift while being transferred onto the poster board.

    • 5

      Trace over your traced image by pressing down firmly with the pencil so that your lines transfer onto to poster board.

    • 6

      Remove the carbon paper/tracing paper from the poster and check over the transferred image, darkening any lines that are not clear.

    Recreating the image

    • 7

      Cut pieces of magazine, construction paper and photos with colors that correspond to the colors in your original photo. Select darker shades of the color for areas that are shaded.

    • 8

      Shape the pieces to fit the outline of the images where you intend to glue them down. Cut the pieces into whatever size you desire.

    • 9

      Glue pieces down, spacing them to create your desired effect. Mark the area in the original photo as you complete them.

    • 10

      Dip a paintbrush in gesso and go over the entire poster. Let it dry.

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