Art Works! Series – Activity #18: Simple Silhouettes
Art Works! is a series of blog posts created by the staff at www.EscapadeDirect.com that offer children of all ages and abilities the opportunity for hands-on art activities that allow them to explore, discover, and express their individual creativity.
We encourage parents to join in on the activities, too, and create their own Art Works!
Art Works! Activity #18: Simple Silhouettes
Celebrate Groundhog’s Day and play with shadows! This art activity is easy to do and makes a delightful gift.
What You Need:
- Digital Camera
- Cardstock or Art Board
- Scissors
- Laser or Inkjet Printer
- Glue Stick
What You Do:
- Have your child stand sideways in front of a light colored wall.
- Position your child’s head so that you see his or her profile against the wall, then take a digital picture. Experiment with different angles to get the best profile.
- Upload your pictures to your computer and size the profile picture to whatever size you would like for the silhouette.
- Print the picture on regular printer paper.
- Use a scissors to cut out the profile. Make sure to include the small pieces of hair or eyelashes that may be part of your picture.
- Use a glue stick to adhere the cutout picture to a piece of cardstock paper – make sure to glue to printed side to the cardstock.
- Once the profile picture is glued to the cardstock, use a scissors to once again cut out the picture. This transfers the silhouette to a heavier paper.
- Place the cutout profile onto a piece of black cardstock, and your silhouette is done and ready to be framed!
Variations:
- Why stop at just your child’s head? Experiment with a variety of poses, including your child’s entire body. You can always resize the picture to fit on a regular sheet of printer paper. Be creative!
- Have your children create profiles of their stuffed animals using this technique. A great way for young children to practice using a scissors.
- Use your photo editing software to remove the background of a picture, then fill the profile part of the picture with a black fill. When you print this picture, just cut around the profile and adhere to a white cardstock for an inverted silhouette.
You Might Also Like:
Blank Art Board – This heavy-weight art board comes with hangers you can use to hang your works of art!
Great American Artists for Kids – This collection of hands-on art activities help children appreciate art and inspire a life-long love of art.
Share Your Art Works! Activities!
If you have an Art Works! project that you would like to share, email us a digital picture (or scan) of your project , and we will post it in our Kids Gallery. If you would like, include the artists first name, age, and your state. It’s fun for kids to see how other children interpreted the project!
As always, encourage your children to come up with their own new ideas for art – and make sure to check back next week for another Art Works! activity in this series!
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