Serious Silhouettes

Silhouettes

This past weekend my parents came to visit because my mother is redecorating and she wanted me to make some art pieces for the room. I haven't gotten as much as usual done lately because I've been sick for over two weeks. All my oils and everything are just barely keeping it at bay. My allergies were exacerbated by the changeable weather and I caught a cold with a horrible cough. I'm getting better but just really slowly, and when I do start to feel better I try to catch up on all my exercising and work and relapse. Luckily I felt well enough to work on my mom's project, and so far I haven't made myself sicker again.

The photos

My mom is re-doing the bunk house style bedroom where her younger grandkids sleep when they visit and she wanted to decorate the wall with silhouettes of them. The oldest kids all have senior pictures from high school which she's displaying in a different room, so we only used photos of the youngest eight kids for this project.

The work in progress

Mom didn't want traditional small framed silhouettes; she wanted large ones on canvas or wood. I had her take photos of all the kids and she chose gallery wrapped canvases and painted them before she arrived. Then I cut the silhouettes from sticky back vinyl and applied them to the canvases. They turned out well. They are really unique, since they are so large, and even though silhouettes were a Victorian craft the large ones have a visual power that is really graphic and modern.

The reference photo

The finished silhouette

The silhouette applied to the canvas 

Another reference photo

Another finished silhouette

My mom ended up with eight portraits on canvas. The canvases measure 12 by 16 inches and the silhouettes themselves are around 8 by 11 inches. Mom had me do four of them facing one way and four facing the other so they will be looking toward one another when they are hung on the wall. To differentiate the girls' portraits I cut some details into the hair. All the girls have longer hair so the shape of their heads is kind of odd in the silhouettes unless you indicate their hairstyles a bit.

The girls' portraits have hairstyle details.

My mom promised to take photos of the finished room, and we will probably visit for Easter so I can take some then, but I laid some of the canvases out on the floor together to get an idea of how they will look hung up. It is a really dramatic and trendy decorating idea, I think! These turned out well enough for me to add them to my Etsy store. I will make them to order. I can paint the canvas any color you want and right now I can do the portrait in either black or white. You can apply these straight to your wall if you would rather not have a canvas. They are removable, just like the wall decals you can buy ready made, except these are portraits! I added an option for you to order just the decal if you would rather have that.

I hope you will check my shop for this unique decorating idea. I think these would be a great wedding gift or housewarming gift, or even a baby or adoption gift, or you could just buy some for yourself!

A wall of portraits