Werewolf Family Portraits: A Fun Halloween Art Project

Looking for a fresh Halloween art project suitable for kids from elementary school all the way through older grades? Try our werewolf portrait Halloween art project! Use simple supplies like torn construction paper, a printed photo, and a glue stick and invite kids to turn themselves or family members into werewolf art.

After many years of kids’ Halloween projects, one of the things that keeps it fresh for me (and hopefully you too!) is playing with themes that have maybe been a *tad* underrepresented.

A quick Google search left me feeling like kids’ werewolf art projects are few and far between (can you imagine?) – a situation that needed to be remedied STAT.

As a huge fan of the classic Universal Halloween monster movies, I couldn’t let October pass by without an ode to one of the greats – and maybe also a secret detail of my own lineage…could we possibly be…werewolves?

Here we have my great, great Uncle Arthur. A busy man, he was an inventor (you can thank him for your padded bicycle seat!), carmaker, newspaper owner (the Cleveland Plain Dealer – heck yeah, Cleveland!), progressive politician, and by night…a werewolf…(maybe…).

The gremlin-ish baby she-wolf below may or may not be yours truly, circa Kindergarten. By day: A tiny little muffet – nearly enveloped by an uncontrollable mane of hair. By night: Vexed with an insatiable hunger (for toast and mashed potatoes). Sure signs, folks.

And finally, feast your eyes on the Holstad brothers four. Knowing their descendants, this handsome quartet of Scandinavians undoubtedly made a fair share of mischief together on the family farm….werewolfing. Probably.

A fairly straightforward process, these werewolf portraits invite kids to rip and tear paper into different shapes to create familiar(-ish) features like hair, ears, and eyebrows.

Torn paper creates a fantastic fur-like texture, and it’s easy to play around with the torn bits and pieces to create shaggy-looking ears, scruffy werewolf sideburns, or a furry neck.

There are so many ways you can make this work as a CUTE Halloween art project for a classroom of younger students, or a somewhat CREEPY project for older kids, and I’ve listed a few ideas below, so be sure to keep reading.

To make your own werewolf family portrait art you’ll need:

Note: We prefer to shop locally or use what we have at home, but this list contains Woodpeckers Crafts, Etsy, Blick Art Materials, Bookshop.org and/or Amazon affiliate links for reference. As affiliates (and Amazon Associates), we make a small commission on qualifying purchases.*

How to Make Werewolf Family Portrait Art – DIY Instructions

Gather your supplies and make a werewolf portrait base.

To begin, you’ll need some kind of printed photo. It can be a school picture, family photo, or a scanned copy of a vintage family shot.

A great place to start with this is by adding a floof of werewolf hair right around a face.

This is optional, but we started by putting a sheet of construction paper behind our printed picture, outlining the face, and creating the basic shape of our werewolf mane.

Use a pencil and press down HARD, and you’ll get a nice outline on the construction paper underneath that isn’t too obvious and becomes a helpful guide you can use to cut or tear your paper along so it perfectly frames the face in your photo!

Begin adding a werewolf mane and features.

After following the first step, you can roughly cut around the impressed line, then start tearing away little pieces to create an edge that looks like fur.

And don’t feel like you have to stick to realistic colors either. Maybe your werewolf alter-ego sports a hot pink mane or rainbow-colored scruffy beard? LOVE it! I mean, werewolves are known for their love of walking on the wild side, right?

Note: it can often be hard to find a standard pack of kids’ construction paper that includes black or shades (even one or two pieces) of browns, creams, and greys. If you’re having trouble locating the exact colors you’re looking for, a grocery bag or brown paper bag is the perfect substitute for browns and can be colored with a marker or oil pastel for other hues. For the VERY discerning werewolf artist, you can also paint papers in the exact shades you prefer, too.

Add paper werewolf ears, eyebrows, or other features.

There are a few features that will REALLY add that werewolf quality to your portraits: big bushy eyebrows, floppy wolf ears, bushy sideburns, and whiskers are all things you can add that will help complete the transformation.

You can reference werewolf movie posters, illustrations, and book covers to help you get some ideas for features you might like to add!

Add a paper werewolf nose.

Werewolves have a lot of unique qualities, and after studying lots of pictures, I’ve noticed one major similarity…their noses are *just* about as cute as it gets.

Cut a nose from paper and try out a few different positions for it…maybe it’s at an angle and your werewolf is sniffing something…you’d be amazed how much a little turn or cut can change the personality of your werewolf.

Glue down your pieces and color in werewolf eyes.

As I mentioned in the previous step, one little adjustment can change the whole feel of your werewolf, so spend some time playing around with the pieces. A great example of a small touch that makes all the difference is adding those neon yellow-green eyes, which we colored in with a highlighter (watercolors work too!).

Once you’re sure everything is where you want it, use a glue stick to glue down the pieces.

Note: You don’t have to glue all the pieces down completely. I chose to glue only the bottom of the ears on so I could bend, form, and shape the paper that WASN’T glued down. This made it look like the ears were popping off the page and added a little dimension to the artwork.

Frame it!

This isn’t necessary, but you can add some kind of frame to seriously make your werewolf portraits shine. Fill an existing frame, make a frame out of paper or cardboard, or use one of the printable frame sets I’ve linked to in the supply list!

Making Werewolf Art in Classrooms

I think this would make SUCH a hilariously cute, not-too-creepy Halloween project in classrooms, but you may want to change the process up a bit…here are a few tips if you’d like to try this in your art room!

• Work BIG. As fun as the portraits with multiple people are, when printed on a sheet of paper, the faces are much smaller than one single portrait, and require little bits of paper and extra dexterity to put together. The larger the face, the easier it is for little hands to add all the fun details and get some good torn textures going.
• Take photos of your students to use for their portraits. Although it might take a little extra work on your part (I know…it’s already not easy!) asking students to bring in pictures on their own can be tricky. Instead, take their pictures against a neutral backdrop and print. Or ask them to draw a portrait of themselves they can use. OR (for the very brave – ha!) print out existing pictures of consenting faculty members or yourself that they can use to create their portraits.
• OR – recycle previously made self-portraits. Nothing illustrates the transformation more literally than this: Turn kid or student-made self-portraits created at the beginning of the school year into werewolf art for Halloween! It’s a fun way to add a twist to a project your kids have already completed (and saves you from figuring out how to do photos).
• Add color! I love the look of these black-and-white portraits, but there’s no reason you can’t use this project as an excuse to incorporate another medium. Invite kids to color in the rest of their photos with pastels or watercolors. This is also an easy way to add the yellow color to the eyes if you don’t have a highlighter handy.

Variations on our Halloween Werewolf Art Project

1. Use your finished portraits for some EPIC Halloween storytelling.

These personalized werewolf portraits are a fantastic opportunity to rev up your little ones’ imaginations and ask them to dream up a spooky backstory that can be told alongside their artwork.

2. Turn your family photos into other Halloween monster classics.

Instead of werewolves, turn your portraits into witches and warlocks, mummies, vampires, aliens, or other classic (or not-so-classic) monsters.

3. Make paper werewolf puppets.

Once finished, cut out your portraits, glue them onto a popsicle stick or craft dowel, and turn them into paper stick puppets for Halloween shows.

More Construction Paper Halloween Art Projects for Kids

For more Halloween paper magic, visit our torn paper Halloween collages and kids’ ghost art project. Design and create the spookiest kicks in town with our paper witch boots project, or turn a recycled container and paper scraps into your own monster treat bucket craft!