Violet at the lake. LOVE this picture.
I know I've mentioned these silhouettes of my ladies several times before, but I finally finished Clara's a couple weeks ago and got them all hung up together.
I love my girls and I love how cute their little faces are. I love that you can tell who each of them are and how different they are.
I've been asked if I used a specific tutorial to make these and while I did browse through a couple different ones for some ideas, I kind of just figured it out on my own.
The first thing I did was take each of their pictures. It seems to work best if you take them in a well-lit room in front a blank wall or other flat surface. Make sure that you are lined up as straight-on as you can and to be level with their face (not too high or too low). Adjust yourself as needed to get their exact profile -- a little angle up or down or having their face turned a bit really changes the shape of their face. Also, especially for younger children, it works really well to have another person standing in front of them talking (or being totally crazy :) so that they keep looking forward. I'm sure that with some kids, the tv would work equally well. Be sure to capture their whole head, neck, and part of their shoulder. And for girls, you can have their hair up or down, I chose up because their hair was so long it would have been difficult to capture when it was down -- plus I like seeing their little necks.
I found a great tutorial to add to
my little tutorial that gives a good step by step of how to get a black silhouette on a white background.
Check it out HERE. Good info if you are not Photoshop savvy.
{OR you can do it in Photoshop (like I did) or use an online picture editing program like
www.picmonkey.com. If you plan on doing yours the way I did, in the end, it doesn't really need to be perfectly "clean" - with nothing in the background - because I just cut out the silhouettes anyway.}
Next, you need to know what size medium you are going to put these on. I found some 8x10 FLAT canvas panels at Michaels. Like
THESE. There are many different sizes -- just do a search on Amazon for "canvas panels". (If you use a 40% off coupon at the craft store, you may get a better deal.) I wanted them in frames and with being flat, these worked perfectly. Once you know the size, you need to crop your photo to the right size --- making sure to leave white space around the silhouette that you want. Also, if you are doing more than one person, you need to make sure that they are scaled correctly next to each other (meaning, it would look a little odd to have Hazel's and Clara's heads be the same size).
Sorry if this paragraph doesn't make sense - Technical Writing wasn't my best college class.
When you are ready to print, make sure that you print the
actual size of your image -- that the option to "fill the page" (or whatever your printer calls it) isn't selected. You don't want to put the work into making your silhouettes the right size only to have your printer make them bigger than your canvas.
Once I printed my silhouettes on
CARDSTOCK, I chose to paint those little faces right onto the canvases with black craft paint. Other tutorials give some other options, but I think painting them on looks much better.
Using scissors and/or an exacto knife (and cutting mat) cut out the silhouettes. As you cut around them, you can choose to leave as much or as little detail as you want in their hair and shirts, but I would recommend getting as exact as you can on their features. --- That is, afterall, what makes them look like themselves. :)
Once satisfied, place the silhouette on the canvas and trace around it with a sharp pencil or very fine marker (hence the use of cardstock for printing). I didn't paint a background color on the canvases first, but you certainly could if you wanted to have a specific color behind them --- just make sure that they are fully dry before tracing the silhouettes. Also, the use of a background color could make it much easier to fix any mistakes later. (just something that occured to me while outlining little lips :)
I used black craft paint and several different sized brushes to paint the silhouettes, from very fine to a bigger one to fill in with. I'd recommend starting with somewhere less important - like the shirt or back of the hair - while you get the hang of it, rather than starting with the nose, mouth, or cute little double chin on your baby. :)
You may find painting these faces incredibly tedious, but for me, I LOVE IT. I love seeing little faces form on the canvas. It's very therapeutic for me.
Once you've finished admiring your work and the paint is fully dry, I'd recommend spraying them with a clear spray to protect them from dust, scratching, and dirty fingers.
Questions? I'm sure that I'm terribly unclear in several places, but if you would like further clarification - just leave me a comment (or call me) and I'll answer as best I can. :)
