Spooky PicMonkey Portraiture!

Well, I have a few projects in the works but while I finish them off, I thought I would follow the lead of Laura at Corner House by sharing some of the fun we had recently with PicMonkey.
   
                           


Laura shared her wonderful scary shots in a post a few days ago, and by chance it appeared online the morning after my son and I enjoyed some school holiday fun by playing around with our own photos.

Halloween is not a traditional celebration in Australia but, of course, given how much US culture pervades here, we know all about it. As kids we yearned to dress up and walk the neighbourhood asking for lollies, but if you did it, people would just look at you blankly.

Nowadays, more Halloween decorations are appearing in our stores, and I think a few kid-centric areas are starting to do it, but not in my town yet. We certainly won't be stocking candy at my house.

(Funnily enough, we are finishing off a Halloween themed project that I'll share in the next few days though! I decided to do it as another holiday activity for the boy and to get in on all the spooky fun I see online!)

Will had attended a Blood & Gore workshop over the holidays, where he learnt some of the principles of creating fake wounds for stage makeup. It was only a bit of a stretch to create this freaky shot:

The bruising on his neck he created in the workshop and if you squint you can see he has made up a black right eye, but the vein on his neck, the pasty skin and heavy overlaid texture are all courtesy of PicMonkey. I think the expression on his face helps spookify it too!

Next we decided to go into the yard, and create some scary poses. Will wanted to be a zombie but the light was fading and he got bored with posing before I could get a really good shot. Hence this:

Flash overload! However, it didn't turn out too badly in the end:

Will decided on all the effects and wording! I can be a control freak so I tried not to cramp his style :)

Next he wanted to see what I could look like, so he selected this fuzzy photo from the archives. Actually, he took it so actually it's not bad:

This is what I looked like once he was finished:

Note the indoor full moon! If you're going to use the eye effects and are planning to take some photos especially for this purpose its useful to know that posing with wide open (ie zombie-like!) eyes work best - you'll see what I mean when you try it.

The next one is one of my favourites, both before and after Will got his paws on it.

Here is the original:

 And here it is with the full zombie effect in play:

 This one is probably the most subtle, so I think that's why it's my favourite. You have to forgive the `heavy handed' edits - my 6yo doesn't like a photo effect unless it's over the top!  Laura's edits are a lot softer and more realistic, but alas, there's no reasoning with little boys.

 I wasn't a fan of PicMonkey at first - I loved Picnik and I still miss it! - but am starting to enjoy PicMonkey the more I use it. It was a lot of fun, so give it a try sometime - with or without the kids!