Erin Spain

Home, DIY, & Photography

  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Advertise
    • Podcast
    • Disclosure & Policies
  • Project Gallery
  • YouTube
  • Photography
  • Contact

Tutorial: How to Make Silhouette Portrait Art

October 21, 2013 By Erin Spain Leave a Comment

Tutorial: How to Make Silhouette Portrait Art

I recently shared the Silhouette Portrait Art that I created as a guest post on Answers.com. I gave a description of how it was made and explained how I made over the thrift store frame, but today I am going to walk you through the actual silhouette-making process step by step. It’s very easy! Here is a tutorial for how to make silhouette portrait art the easy way.

What you’ll need:

  • Picture Frame
  • Black Cardstock
  • Computer and Printer
  • Printer Paper
  • Camera
  • Scissors

First, take a picture of your subject (in this case it was my son) turned to the side, so you get a good profile shot. It helps to have them stand in front of a light background.

Upload the photo to your computer, then use a photo editing program like Picasa or PicMonkey (both free!) to crop your photo from the chest up, and change it to high contrast black and white.

Tutorial: How to make silhouette portrait art

The black and white should suffice, but if you want it to be even more highly contrasted you can use the “Holga-ish” option in Picasa to invert the colors and really make your image stand out.

Tutorial: How to make silhouette portrait art

Print your image onto regular printer paper. I printed mine in a 5×7 size, but of course this will depend on the size of your frame and how big you want your image to be.

Cut out your profile.

Tutorial: How to make silhouette portrait art

Trace it onto your black cardstock, cut it out and insert it into your frame. You may need some double-sided tape to ensure that it stays put if you center it inside your frame. Light colored paper or fabric make the best background for the silhouette. I used burlap for mine.

That’s it!

Tutorial: How to make silhouette portrait art

I love the idea of incorporating these into a gallery wall, although mine is currently situated in a little fall arrangement in the living room/office.

Tutorial: How to make silhouette portrait art

Will you be making a silhouette portrait? If so, who will your silhouette subject be?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

If you’re new here, please consider subscribing via RSS or by email.

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Home & DIY Blog, Tutorials

« DIY Chevron Planter
How to Build a Wood Planter {Tutorial} »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SHOP ERIN’S FAVORITES

SPONSORS & AFFILIATES

CATEGORIES

ARCHIVES

Copyright © 2023 Erin Spain. Log in | Privacy Policy