CREATE A SILHOUETTE PORTRAIT

Traditional silhouettes are hand cut by looking at the subject. However, less skilled artists employed a device that casts a shadow on translucent paper using candlelight. This makes a fun activity with your kids or grandkids.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: • Chair

• White paper (2 sheets) • Tape

• Flashlight

• Pencil

• Scissors

• Black paper (1 sheet) • Glue

• Frame (optional)

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

1. Have your subject sit in a chair in front of a blank wall and face to the side so you can see their profile.

2. Tape a white sheet of paper onto the wall behind them at the height of their head.

3. Have someone shine the flashlight at the subject’s profile until their full shadow appears on the piece of paper, including their neck and the top of their shoulders.

4. Trace their shadow onto the paper using a pencil.

5. Remove the paper from the wall, and cut along the pencil line to create a template.

6. Place the template onto a black piece of paper and trace the outline with a pencil. Remove the template and cut along your pencil line on the black paper.

7. Glue the black silhouette onto a fresh sheet of white paper, and put it in a frame to display.

He insisted on having a silhouette shop on Main Street in Disneyland, which started the growing popularity of child silhouettes. “If not for Walt, I don’t think it would be as popular on the West Coast as it was on the East Coast,” says Karl. Now the art of silhouettes is more versatile, and you can get a silhouette of your child or even your pet.

VINTAGE VS. MODERN

You can find silhouettes at flea markets, estate sales, auctions and online shops such as Etsy and eBay. Because many silhouettes are still being produced today, there’s a chance you might accidentally snag a modern piece, even if you’re looking for vintage. So here are some things to check for while you’re on the hunt.

Look for the name on a silhouette. Or you can find a tag—or provenance— on the back of the piece that says who the silhouette is of. “Silhouette paper historically is really thin, and it’s been around the block,” says Karl. “It would be hard to replicate that kind of age.” Older silhouettes are usually tiny, while modern silhouettes are larger, sometimes even filling a 5x7 frame.

Also, watch for silver embellishments. Though rare, they indicate age, as adding silver isn’t common anymore. “This thing called a camera got invented, and [silhouette] artists went the way of the dodo bird,” says Karl. “Some artists would incorporate silver embellishments to set them apart and compete with cameras. The artists were trying to make their work more dimensional.”

Whether you collect vintage silhouettes of strangers past or get new ones of your family, silhouettes are a keepsake to treasure.

There’s no denying that silhouettes are growing in popularity. “These silhouettes were part of a vintage restock for my online shop,” says vintage shop owner Renee Galbraith of Havenberry Vintage. “They are a customer favorite, so I pick them up whenever I can. I usually find them at local auctions that are selling whole estates.”

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(above) Even a small collection can pull together a vignette, like this man and woman from blogger Pam Rodda of Junktales. “I got these silhouettes from another vintage collector,” she says. “I love silhouettes because of their history and the stories they could tell us. I like to imagine what the lives were like for those people.” Silhouette artist Karl Johnson cuts his silhouettes online through Zoom or from photographs submitted through his website. But he also has a vintage collection of his own. This silhouette from 1835 is an example of how some artists embellished their work with silver accents to compete with the invention of cameras.