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Digital DIY: Spooky Mixed Media Art

By Sarah Foster | Featured Photo Editor Tutorials

As we approach the spooky season, the thrill of incorporating a touch of eerie charm into your home decor becomes one of the most delightful aspects of the changing weather. Instagram has been a treasure trove of inspiration when it comes to elevating your seasonal home decor game. Trending on social media are videos of adding ghosts and other spooky content to thrifted paintings, creating a work of art that is completely custom and perfect for the fall. Finding the perfect painting to start with can be really difficult, making it nearly impossible to even start your own ghost art painting, but with BeFunky’s Photo Editor, being trendy has never been so easy by creating your own digital art. 

How to Create Your Own Spooky Art

Get started by opening up your image in BeFunky’s Photo Editor. If you don’t have one in mind you would like to work with, you can browse BeFunky’s expansive stock image library to find the perfect base image. When choosing a base image, it is good to keep in mind that you want the base to be able to shine through when adding things to it. You want something that can be made spooky; old houses, forests, or other spooky settings! Here is our image before: 

spooky DIY

Step 1: Apply an Artsy Effect

Since the original inspiration is a painting, we are going to apply an artsy effect to the base layer image you choose to create that illusion. For this tutorial, we choose to use Oil Painting 1 Artsy Effect to create the painted look of the trend. When you select the effect that works for your image and desired effect, you can click on the settings box to customize the effect. Use the slider to change how much of the effect is applied to your image, you can click the box to Preserve the Original Colors of the image, or you can leave it unchecked if the colors of the effect look great on your image. Once you have reached your desired effect, click Apply

oil painting effect

Step 2: Add Spooky Vector Graphics

Under the Graphics tab, you can search BeFunky’s extensive library of vector graphics to find the perfect ones for your spooky season art! Search keywords like ghosts, webs, pumpkins, and bats. When you find graphics you like in the library, click on them and they will be added to your graphics.

ghost library

Double-click or drag and drop a graphic into your canvas. Once they are in your canvas, you can change the color by clicking on the color value box, and adjusting the size by dragging the little blue dots in the corners of the graphic. Once it is the size you prefer, you can drag your graphic to the location you want it to be. 

add graphics and change color

To intensify the impact, consider lowering the opacity to approximately 75% to achieve a more ethereal and ghostly appearance. Do this by clicking on your chosen graphic, selecting options, and then reducing the transparency slider to 75%. 

opacity change

Step 3: Save Your Haunted DIY Art

When your digital art piece is where you want it to be, click save at the top of your interface and save it to your desired location. If you want to keep working on it at a later time, you can always save it as a BeFunky Project! If you are planning on printing this masterpiece, save it as a print-quality PDF.

save mixed media ghosts

Picking the Right Frame

Now that your work of art is perfected and ready to print, you can find the right frame without having to worry about what is inside of it. Scour thrift stores, or order one online! We suggest something that has some character and spookiness to fit the vibe of your digital art! Once you know the size of the frame you select, then you can print your image to the right size!  If you want it to look just like you painted it, try the Modge Podge trick of creating brush strokes on your digital print. If the frame you've stumbled upon has broken glass, you can choose to leave it out without any concerns about it seeming unusual. 

mixed media ghosts final

Create Your Own Spooky Work of Art

Now that you know how to create your spooktacular piece of seasonal art, you can get started on your own masterpiece. No need to stress about finding the perfect painting – with this newfound knowledge, you can be trending without all the shopping stress. These customized creations are a perfect fit for the fall vibe, and you can completely customize and craft your own in minutes with BeFunky. So, let your creativity flow and get started turning your space into a spooky wonderland this season. Whether it's eerie landscapes, ghostly portraits, or haunted houses, the possibilities are endless, and the fun is just beginning!

Photo Editing, Simplified.


Photo Editing. Simplified