Fingerprint Art

My neighbor/friend Clare is an awesome person to have close by. She actually was friends with my younger sister in college, and we connected through a professional association. When we found out we only live a few streets from each other, we (well at least I) were in heaven.

And this is why. Clare and her husband like art that is unique and meaningful. When Tony went away for the weekend, Clare decided to surprise him and create art based on their fingerprints. I know, you already love her.

This is the master bedroom they started with.  The floors are light wood, the walls are a cream color, and the bedding is tan. It was a whole lot of tan, and Clare and Tony decided they wanted to add some color. They had agreed on a navy accent wall behind the bed, and Clare got to work while Tony was gone!

To make the art, she first scanned their finger prints on the highest quality setting and uploaded them to Photoshop CS3. She did some rasterizing of the zoomed-in imageds (I have no idea what that means) and then digitally over each other. 

After playing around with the prints in Photoshop, it looked something like this.

She printed the images, and made them 8.5" x 8.5". This is solely a personal preference because Clare loves square art. I love square art too. And pretty much everything else Clare likes.The black and yellow represent Clare and Tony's fingerprints - this will make more sense in a minute.

She taped the image under tracing paper and...

Started painting! She painted each layer in a different color using the color scheme from the bedroom. So, brown for the furniture, cream for the bedding, and blue from the walls.

Clare called this part painstaking. She literally pulled an all-nighter. She is so cute/crazy. And she did this four times....

After the first color had completely dried, she went back through and added the second layer.

Here's the final print with all three colors added together. She made four total, so mixed the main color so that the prints felt modern and fresh.

Another print with more blue. When they had dried, she matted them on white cardstock, leaving a 1/4" border around each edge.

She matted the pictures using fancy tools like this. Y'all, I was not kidding when I said that she is a crafty fancy artist person (if I didn't say it yet, I'm saying it now). This woman is tal-en-ted.

Here's a sample of the finished product. Totally unique. Totally modern. Totally gorgeous.

Here they are matted over the bed! Aren't they gorgeous? They totally pop against the navy blue wall.

A close-up shot.

There you have it - some of the most beautiful and personalized art I've ever seen. Her husband loved it by the way... how could he not?? Be super jealous that Clare is not your neighbor/friend. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to con her into helping me make some sort of art!

Think of the possibilities with her method too - there are a lot of cool things you could paint onto tracing paper and them frame! Thanks, Clare, for sharing your creativity and talents!