Big Impact Artwork

What was needed in our upstairs hallway were 2 pieces of large-scale graphic art. (What really was needed was clean laundry, but …) We mounted a collage of black & white photo prints onto pieces of plywood for an economical solution for bare walls.

Building the Base: I wanted to use materials that we had on hand. Mary Jean had some smooth plywood sheets left over from her kitchen remodel. Using a skilsaw, we cut 2 squares, 32″ each. We sanded the edges to remove the rough bits.

Creating the Illusion of Mass: So that the prints would look more substantial and 3-dimensional, we built up the back of the plywood by cutting, gluing, and attaching additional strips of plywood to the edges.

1. Measured and marked 1″ strips on plywood.
2. Clamping and cutting wood strips.
3. Wood strip, before sanding.
4. Sanding the edges of the strips.
5. Wood strip with nice clean edge, after sanding.
6. Finished cutting (finally).
7. Applying wood glue to wood strip.
8. Layering 2 strips together.
9. Taping 2 strips so they stay together and edges are flush.
10. Clamping the bundle of taped strips to stabilize while they dry.
11. Attaching the doubled-up strips to the back of the plywood by gluing and clamping. In addition, we secured the top with screws for additional strength for hanging.

Images: My daughter took a great photo of black-eyed susans on our vacation last summer. I converted it to black/white, increased the contrast, and added a “film grain” filter in photoshop. I enlarged it, cropped it 2 different ways, then printed it out in 8.5″ square sections on a white cover stock. (I tried photo paper at first, but the regular cover stock worked better, and was less expensive.) I printed the entire image slightly larger than 32″ square so the edges could overlap slightly, leaving no gaps.

Mounting the Prints to the Plywood: After printing the 2 sets of images, we trimmed them out with an exacto knife and used Mod Podge ® to attach them to the board.

1. Lay out the black/white copies. (It is a good idea to label the backs.)
2. Trim copies.
3. Position trimmed copies onto plywood.
4. Mod Podge ®, tray, foam brush, brayer.
5. Starting in one corner, spread Mod Podge ® onto board.
6. Spread Mod Podge ® onto back of paper.
7. Spread Mod Podge ® onto top of paper.
8. Position paper, and use brayer/roller to press paper down securely onto board, squeezing out excess Mod Podge ®, working from the center of the paper out to the edges. Do not continue going over the same area with the brayer or the paper will break apart and lift off.
9. Working row by row, continue attaching each piece of paper. We slightly overlapped them, leaving no gaps.
10. Completed top and bottom rows. Continue until entire collage is attached to board. Allow to dry.
11. Apply second coat of Mod Podge ® after 1st coat has dried. Roll over with brayer while wet for a nice stippled texture.

All Done! We located the studs and drew a pencil line on the wall with a level. We attached nails into 2 studs and hung the prints on the nails.

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