Me and My Shadow

One of my projects accomplished from this past week off was to create silhouettes of me and my family.  I had already owned some unused framed and matted artwork that desperately needed to be replaced.  I used vinyl wallcovering samples for backgrounds to add texture and depth to the silhouettes and basic charcoal paper for the cut-outs.  Overall this homemade art project cost me under $7, not too shabby.  So, if you would like to create your own the steps are easy and you'll love the end result.

First step is painfully obvious, take profile pictures of your subjects.  If you are doing multiple silhouettes like me, you should stand at the same distance for all the profiles so when printed the heads are scaled appropriately.  After you are satisfied with the pictures taken, print to the size you wish the silhouettes to be.  Cover the pictures with tracing paper and using a pen draw over the profile (see picture below).  This may take a rough draft or two, I kept messing up around the nose for some reason.  Small details like hair and eyelashes are very important and add a great amount of character to these.

My husband was a great sport.

 Then staple the perimeter of the trace to the silhouette paper of your choice so that it is secure.  To cut use either scissors or an exacto knife (I preferred an exacto knife, but I have a lot of experience cutting strange angles with these).  And after this step you have your actual silhouette.  Now you can display it however you choose: whether you mount the silhouette on a brightly patterned cardstock or attach it to classic white that is your decision.  I covered the pictures with black paper that I currently had surrounded by white matting and then covered that with textured white wallcovering (leaving a black border) and finally attached my silhouette before inserting it into the frame.  See below for final picture.

Voila.

However, I did not put all three in one frame.  Far too busy, each person gets there own (I guess I'm not one for sharing, OCD "Only Child Syndrome").  I was extremely pleased with the final result.  Happy Monday!