One of the most iconic parts of the haunted mansion ride is the purple wallpaper with the ghostly faces. The design has been put on virtually everything possible from clothes and blankets to shower curtains and shoes.
As we have turned to house into the Haunted Mansion for a Halloween party for the last few years I have had a large replica of the ballerina stretching portrait hanging in our entry way. I needed to replace the painting, so I decided to paint a large 36″ x 36″ canvas with the iconic wallpaper design. I began by basing coating the canvas in an acrylic lavender. I figured I could darken it up later as desired. I then sketched out the design using a pencil and then a sharpie.
I then filled in the sharpie with some acrylic black paint.
I then painted the eyes white and decided to to add a layer of glow in the dark paint over the eyes so they would stand out at night.
Here is the finished product after I antiqued the canvas with a variety of diluted washes of a darker purple and black. I dragged the rag down the canvas to achieve the streaking effect. I planned to add a more sponge like blotchy effect but I liked this look more.
Until next time…be on the lookout for more of our Haunted Mansion builds. We will have over 70 pieces life sized pieces in our Haunted Mansion this year.
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