How Can One Make a Customized Family portrait and Print? Best tips and tools

Creating a customized family portrait digitally can be a fun and rewarding art project you can get into on your own or by collaborating with your siblings. A customized family portrait can be a great home decor piece that brings you joy every time you look at it. It can also be a sweet gift you can give your parents or loved ones on a special occasion, which they are sure to love.

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In this day and age, digitally making a personalized family portrait is very easy. Many applications are available on smartphones and PCs for creating family portraits in any way you want without having to spend any money on art supplies. Such editing apps usually have many great editing tools, including templates, designs, fonts, etc., that you can incorporate into the family portrait to make it as unique as possible.

In this article, we will provide a detailed guide on how to customize family portraits using Canva and Design Space. So read on to learn anything and everything you want to know about the topic!

How To Create A Unique Family Print?

You can create a unique family print with some planning and creativity to make it as decorative as possible. A digital family portrait print is as unique and thoughtful as commissioning a family painting or making one on your own. Below is a detailed tutorial on how you can make them using Canva and Design Space. Read on to choose the best app among the two and create the family portrait of your dreams!

1. By Using Canva

As you may already know, Canva is a popular editing application with plenty of editing tools, making it a one-stop app for all your art project needs. The application can help you create collages, portraits, memorial paintings, posters, emblems, etc., based on what you want to use the app for. It is available on iOS and Android devices.

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As you may have already guessed, Canva is also an excellent application for making a custom family portrait. The application is very user-friendly, so you may not find it challenging to figure out how to make a family portrait in Canva. You can refer to the steps below to help you further with the family portrait-making process.

Step 1

If this is your first time using Canva, you can use your Google account to sign in to the app. You can use the Canva website as a guest if you are on your PC to make the personalized family portrait.

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Step 2

On entering the app, click the ‘New’ icon or ‘Custom Design’ option if you are on your PC. Then select ‘Custom Size’ to give your canvas the dimensions you prefer. Once you have entered your preferred dimensions, click the ‘Create New Design’ button.

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Step 3

Once the canvas appears, you will notice a left-hand toolbar with many options on it. If you are on your phone, you will find a ‘+’ icon in the left-hand corner that opens a menu with all the same options. Click on the ‘Elements’ option, and on its search bar, search for ‘People.’ This will give you a lot of results with customizable illustrations or stock animations of people.

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Step 4

From the results, find and choose a family illustration that resembles yours the most. You can also select different graphics of individuals and customize them accordingly in the canvas to get a result that resembles your family.

Canva also lets you customize the appearance of each individual person in any illustration. So, it is quite easy to make a customized family portrait in Canva using illustrations of people that resemble your family well.

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Step 5

After you have customized the appearance of everyone in the family portrait, you can now arrange them in the way you want to.

Step 6

Canva also lets you add texts in different fonts and any other decorative elements that you think can make the customized family portrait as unique as possible. If you want to add any text, you can find the font of your choice from the ‘Text’ option in the options menu.

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If you want any decorative items, you can again choose the ‘Elements’ options to find the apt one for your customized family portrait. You can also search for suitable elements if you have any particular decorative image or illustration in your mind.

Step 7

Once you are satisfied with your portrait and feel it is on par with what you had in your mind, save it by clicking on the "Download" button in the top right-hand corner. You have to choose the file format in which you want to save your customized family portrait while downloading the result.

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Step 8

You can now print the customized family portrait you created and frame it to use as sweet home decor.

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2. By Using Design Space

Now that you know how to make a customized family portrait using Canva, let us look at how you can customize one using Design Space. Design Space by Circuit is an application or website that can serve an amazing purpose for any art project you have in mind. You can use the application to make paintings, self-portraits, collages, or any other edits that you want to create. Design Space is available both on Android as well as iPhone, and also on your PC.

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Design Space provides its users with many kinds of art and painting styles to choose from based on what their art project demands. Here we give you a detailed tutorial on how to make a custom family portrait using watercolor as the art style.

Step 1: Choose Your Graphics

The first step to making a personalized family portrait using Design Space is to choose the graphics of your choice. Design Space provides you with loads of visuals in different themes. If you want the family portrait to look festive, you can choose from the several festive graphics available in the Design Space application and website.

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You will be able to find graphics of all kinds, including Halloween, Easter, and Christmas-themed designs that celebrate unity, bonding, and even nature. You can choose the one that is most appealing to you for the customized family portrait of your dreams. If you want to get your graphics from elsewhere, you can also do that based on your illustration choice.

Step 2: Upload The Images That You Chose Into Design Space

Once you have downloaded the images of your choice based on your preferred graphics, it is time to upload them into Design Space. If you have downloaded images of bodies, heads, and accessories separately, make sure to upload each of them into Design Space individually. If you missed some accessories or graphics, you could also find them from the ‘Templates’ option. This button is present in the toolbox on the left side of the application window.

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After you add all the necessary pictures and graphics onto Design Space, save them as a ‘print then cut’ image. You don’t have to worry if all the images you added are different sizes. You can adjust them later when you get into the editing process of the art project.

Step 3: Create Your Print Size

Now, you must fix the size you wish your personalized family portrait print to be. For this, you have to first choose the ‘Shapes’ option from the toolbar that you can find on the left-hand side of the website. Choose a square from the list of shapes and adjust its size to make it a rectangle.

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You can find the height and width boxes at the top of the Design Space screen, and by clicking the padlock option, you can open it. You can give your preferred height and width, say 7 inches wide and 5 inches tall, to make the square a rectangle. Make sure the color of the rectangle is white.

Step 4: Resize The Graphics And Position It Accordingly

Position the rectangle in such a way that you can add the images inside it in the desired positions. Resize the ‘too big’ or ‘small’ graphic images into the apt sizes that fit inside the rectangle. You can zoom in or out using the icon on the left-hand corner of the edit window, which can help you edit and resize the graphics flawlessly.

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Step 5: Centre The Graphic Images In The Rectangle

Choose the watercolor graphics layers from the layers panel on the right-hand side of the screen. Select all the watercolor layers except the white background of the rectangle by holding down CTRL or SHIFT.

You must then click the ‘Group’ icon to combine all the watercolor graphics. You will find that icon at the top of the Layers panel in the Design Space application.

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Once you have put the watercolor graphics in a group, you have to select it along with the rectangular layers. Then choose the align option at the top of the editing window, and from the drop-down menu that appears, choose ‘Center.’ This option will align your picture precisely in the center of the rectangle border, giving your personalized family portrait print an overall balanced look.

Step 6: Add The Names Of Your Family Members If Necessary

If you want the family portrait print to be as customized as possible, the best way to do so is by adding the names of your family members against each illustration or graphic based on who it represents.

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You can do so by using the ‘Text’ tool that you can find on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the Design Space edit window. This feature helps you choose from the variety of fonts available and adjust the font size in a way that works best for your personalized family portrait.

Design Space tends to leave undesired space between the letters of a word you type, especially for specific fonts. You can fix this issue by right-clicking on the word and selecting the ‘Ungroup’ option. This option will split each letter in the word into different layers, letting you click and drag them towards each other by leaving just appropriate space between each letter.

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Once you have finished arranging them, you can select all the letters together and choose the ‘Group’ option to link them together to appear as a word.

Step 7: Flatten Your Design

Once you have finished creating the personalized family portrait in your desired manner, you have to flatten it. The ‘Flatten’ option on the right-hand side merges the graphics, texts, and all other elements with the base rectangle to make it one image. If you forget to flatten, all the different elements will get printed on separate sheets of card and not as a single unit.

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You have to select all the layers, including the white rectangular background, together before pressing the ‘Flatten’ button that you will find on the right corner of the Design Space edit window. This will remove any outlines, including those around the texts, and turn the whole image into one layer.

Step 8: Print Your Design

Now that you have flattened and completed making the perfect customized family portrait, it is time to print your design to be framed and used as a wall-hanging home decor. To proceed with printing your edit, you have to first choose the green ‘Make It’ option that you can find on the top right side of your screen. On the next window that appears with your completed work, click the ‘Continue’ option that you can find on the bottom right.

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Next, you have to choose the option ‘Send To Printer’. On the popup that then appears, switch OFF the ‘Add Bleed’ option and switch ON the ‘Use System Dialog’ option and proceed to click ‘Print.’

This redirects you to your printer settings window, where you must set the printing quality to the highest resolution possible to get the best result. You can now click ‘OK’ to print the personalized family portrait you made using Design Space.

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Get a Customized Family Portrait

Unlike the above-mentioned methods, this one does not involve you having to make a customized family portrait on your own using illustrations.

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Another great way to make a customized family portrait is by getting a commissioned family portrait done by an artist or art firm and then printing or framing it. In most cases, these may be paintings that commission artists do of your family, and in some other cases, it may be photo edits that professionals do.

Here, let us look at the different steps using which you can get a family portrait painting and then customize it to make it a home decor.

Step 1: Look For Artists

The best way to get a custom family portrait painting is by hiring a professional artist. You can search for artists in your local area or online for artists who focus on painting portrait pictures.

It is important that you research well to find the best artist that can satisfy all your requirements for the paintings. You should also look at which artists ask for reasonable rates to work on your commissioned family portrait painting.

Step 2: Find A Service that offers Family Portrait Paintings

There are also many art firm websites that can assist you with your commissioning needs. It is better to give your work to such firms than an individual artist that you found on a social media platform, as the former can be more trustworthy.

Mavenart is one such firm that provides commission services to satisfy its customers in the best way possible. They can make family portrait paintings by referring to different pictures of family members, and the end result looks cohesive.

When choosing such services, you have to choose a trustworthy one like Mavenart. Thus, you can get flawless family portrait paintings that meet your specifications.

Step 3: Research Further About Your Shortlisted Artists

After finding some artists that align with your needs, the first step in hiring the perfect artist to do your commission work is to research about them well.

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If you have a setvof shortlisted artists, you have to start by researching more about all of their work. You have to look at whether an artist's style aligns with the style you have in mind for your family portrait.

Go through several paintings and commission works your shortlisted artists completed. Try finding any of the previous customers the artists had and try connecting with them. You can ask them about the work ethics of that particular artist and the quality of the final product that they received.

You must also look into the rates that the artist charge for the art pieces. You can also talk to their customers about the artists’ pricing, which can help you analyze whether the price they charge is on par with the quality of their work. After researching all your shortlisted artists, you will have a clear idea as to who you have to choose.

Step 4: Contacting The Artists

Once you've finalized which artist you want to paint your family portrait, you can contact them through their websites or social media. Once you've contacted the artists of your choice, you can talk to them about your preferences and requirements for the painting.

Give them all the necessary details to paint the portrait, including the number of people in the portrait, any specific requests you might have, and, obviously, the size of your family portrait painting.

Step 5: Finalize The Order

Once you've discussed and agreed on all the details, the artists might ask for a deposit to confirm the commission.

Before you confirm the commission, clarify everything related to the timeline, payment terms, requirements, and other essential details you want to add.

Step 6: Reference Photos

Once everything else has been confirmed, you will need to provide the artists with reference photos so that the artist can create an accurate portrait painting of your family.

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While commissioning a portrait from an artist, it's always best to provide them with high-quality pictures. You should provide them with reference photos of your family that clearly provide the artist with details of every person's facial features and any unique details a person might have.

Step 7: Finalize Placement of The Subjects

Once you provide your commission artist with the reference photos, you have to provide them with your idea as to where you want each family member to be. You have to mention the ideal position of each of them in the family portrait painting.

The artists may give their suggestions, too, as they will have an idea of what may be more aesthetically pleasing. You can either take their suggestions or deny it based on your requirements.

Step 8: Decide The Style and Size of The Artwork

If you have the desired style in which you wish to see the customized family portrait, let your artist know about it. If they are familiar with that art style, they will accept to make the portrait in your desired style.

It is, however, best to look for the artist or commission firms that specialize in the art style of your choice while researching for one itself. Not all artists may be familiar or good in all kinds of art styles.

You also have to let your commission artist know of the size that your family portrait prefers. Give the exact dimensions that you desire for your portrait to your artist before they start working on it.

Step 9: Finalize The Background

Once you have shared all the reference photos of the different family members, you must provide a reference photo of the background you prefer. Make sure to give a clear photo of your preferred background so your artist can seamlessly draw it into the family portrait.

If you do not want any scenery or particular place as the background, you can also ask your commission artist to make the background a solid color that they think will go well with your family portrait. They will recommend some colors they think may be great for the photo, and you can finalize your favorite one.

Step 10: Keeping Regular Contact With The Artist

Once the commission work has begun, you must keep regular contact with your commission artist. You have to ask them regularly as to how the work is moving forward.

Regular queries like this will make the artist understand that you are keen on getting the painting, which can help avoid any slacking off from their side. This will also help you ensure the painting will get finished in the set timeline.

Step 11:Review The Painting

Once the painting is completed, the artist will share an image of the painting. You can then review them and provide feedback or suggestions before the painting is shipped to you.

Step 12: Receiving The Painting

Once all the feedback has been provided and the final product is completed to your satisfaction, the artist will show the painting to you. Once you've received your family portrait painting, you can inspect it carefully and ensure the work is satisfactory.

You can also ask to review your painting before it's finalized to see if any changes have to be made to your commissioned family portrait painting. Services like Mavenart show their customers their completed painting for preview and enquire whether any revisions are necessary.

Some artists or art firms also provide you with the feature of framing your finalized commission work. You can opt for that or can frame it on your own if the frame you can get is cheaper are the ones they provide.

Getting a family portrait painting can be great home decor for your house. It is a great decorative item and even a gift idea for any family member. Anyone who views their family’s portrait painting will have their hearts filled with joy.

Conclusion

Making a customized family portrait print is an easy yet satisfying process that can bring you a lot of joy. Your parents will feel delighted and proud of you for investing your precious time in something this beautiful and creative.

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You can follow the detailed steps in this article to make the perfect customized family portrait print using Canva or Design Space. Once you print the design you made using Canva or Design Space, you can cut it well and frame it to use as a sweet wall hanging or house decor, making your home more beautiful than it already is.