Calvin & Hobbes Comic Wall Art

With just a few supplies and some patience, you can make a fun piece of art for your wall! No real artistic ability is required--just the ability to trace and stay in the lines.

1 Calvin & Hobbes comic (or another comic of your choice) saved electronically as an image--you can either find one online--you could also scan one from a book or take a picture of one. Note: Either a color or black & white comic will work--I used a black & white comic from a book and added the color myself.

Scanner (if scanning comic from a book) or camera/phone (if taking a picture of one)

Flash drive

Rectangular primed canvases--one for each panel of the comic you chose (I used 4 that were 16" x 20")

Portable electronic projector

Acrylic craft paint--If your comic already has color, you can use the colors of the comic or choose others. If your comic is black & white, you can choose to keep it that way (and only use black paint) or you can add colors of your choice.

Several small paint brushes, including one for fine lines

Pencil

Clamps

Masking tape

Picture hanging hooks and hammer

Measuring tape

Load your comic image onto a flash drive. You can have the whole comic as one image or divide it into panels.

Set up your projector--I used a counter, but a table would also work.

Set up one canvas vertically--I used clamps to hold it steady, but you could also hang the canvases on a wall. The projector and the canvas should be several feet apart. You can adjust it later.

Turn on your projector, plug in the flash drive and project the comic onto the canvas, adjusting it so that one panel of the comic takes up the whole area of the canvas. You may need to zoom in on your projector or adjust the distance between the projector and the canvas.

Tip: use masking tape to mark where your projector and canvases are...just in case your projector gets moves (or you are forced to move it mid-project)...then you will know where they were setting.

Once you have the comic projected onto the canvas, as you like it, turn off the lights in the room to make it easier to see the projection. Using your pencil, trace the speech bubbles, words and all lines and details in the comic. You might find it helpful to have somebody hold the canvas steady while you work (which is less of an issue if you hang the canvases on the wall while tracing). Periodically block the light from the projector to check your progress and make sure you didn't miss any lines.

Repeat the tracing for each panel of the comic.

Once the pencil tracing is finished, it is time to paint!

Decide at this point whether you are want your comic to be black and white or in color.

If you are doing a black & white comic, apply black craft paint using a fairly small brush onto all of the lines/details and words/speech bubbles of the comic. You do not need to apply white paint since your canvas should already be primed white.

If you are doing a colored comic, you can either refer to the original comic for color choices or, if your original comic is black & white and you want to add color, use paint colors of your choice.

Apply craft paint (it doesn't matter which order, but it's easier to paint main colors before adding black outlines) with small paint brushes, allowing each color to dry before applying the next color (especially if the colors are next to each other). Try to avoid completely painting over the lines that will be black (or you won't know where they are!) Since my canvases were primed white, I did not have to paint any areas that were supposed to stay white (like speech bubbles).

You can either paint one canvas completely before moving onto the next or work on them all at once (for example, paint all the purple on all panels first).

NOTE: You probably don't want the edges of the canvases to stay white, so when you are painting, extend your paint down the sides of the canvas. It doesn't need to be perfect, you just need something there other than white.

Once all of the canvases are finished, it is time to display your art!

Decide where you want your canvases to hang on a wall. It will be easier if you hang the middle two canvases first, centering them, then work out to the ends. Use your measuring tape to make sure that each canvas is the same distance down from the top of the wall (or up from the floor). Leave a little space (an inch or two) between the canvases. Hammer in your picture hanging hooks and display your canvases.