Thumbtack dudes, the tutorial.

[bobert]

Hi everybody.
I figured I'd go ahead and post a little tutorial on how to make your own thumbtack dudes.
I figured I'd do a boo since he's a fairly simple character, and it won't take nearly as long to do the coloring since he's primarily white.
So here goes...
Spoiled for lots'a pics.

Spoiler

The stuff you'll need

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Create your pattern. I use graphing paper and a ratio of 4 squares to 1 pixel. You'll also want to find the verticle and horizontal centers to align the picture.

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Prep your tacs. I color mine with sharpie markers. They dont 'streak' much. I also use plain old white tacs so the colors dont get all wonky which can happen when you try to color over another color, or a metallic base.

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Use somethin' to make some 'pilot holes'.

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Pilot holes done.

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Continued in next post....

[bobert]

Spoiler

Put some anchor tacs down to keep the paper from shifting around.

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Put in the lightest colored tacs first. Even given plenty of time to dry, the sharpie ink still likes to rub off a little. If you have darker colored ink on your fingers when your putting in the lighter colored ones, you'll likely smudge'em.

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Add the rest and you're done.

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They're a little difficult to frame due to the tacs sticking through the back of the corkboard... but I just muscle them in... :P

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There ya go. For this tutorial, and for any pieces I frame, I just use construction paper. It's cheap... For my wall mural I used poster board which is quite a bit more, but definately sturdier.

The whole project took an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish at a leisurely pace.

[mud]

Thanks! Great tutorial!