Screenshot this pic!
Most of the specific information for the polaroid lift process can be found in this tutorial here, have a look before you start on this project.
This is a short tutorial on how to make a cute cartoon ghost for Halloween using the Polaroid lift technique. The steps we follow here are essentially the same as my most current Polaroid lift tutorial, though we can be a bit less careful as we are trying to exaggerate wrinkles in this instance!
If you don’t want to make the underlying image yourself that’s totally fine too, I’ve included my original image here so you can use that to your hearts content.
Step 1: Make the image
First you need an image to work with. I made mine in photoshop then I printed it on the polaroid lab. It’s super simple, just a few ellipses and a gradient background. If you don’t have photoshop you could easily make it in something like Paint. If you don’t have a lab but have a polaroid camera, then you could display the image on a screen and take a photo of that instead.
Step 2: Lift the Polaroid
Let it cure for 45 minutes then cut off the white border and peel off the top layer. Give it a bath in some hot water, around 70 degrees Celsius, and once the emulsion has lifted scoop it up into a cup.
Step 3: Transfer the Polaroid
Plop it into a tray with some watercolour paper and room temperature water. You don’t need to worry about sorting the wrinkles out too much here, just find where the face is, pinch above it, and lift the whole thing from the water. If you aren’t happy with it, pop it back in and try again.
Step 4: Add the details
Once you’ve got the overall shape done you can plonk it down onto the table and keep working at it with a brush. As long as it’s wet it will be easy to move, so you can adjust the shape and add in more features like a couple of little arms.
Once you are done, leave your print somewhere to dry, but keep it out of direct sunlight or the colours will change. If the paper ends up a bit wonky after it’s dried, you can flatten it out by popping in under some heavy books for a while.
