These used to be very popular back in days of old. Before camera’s were invented people got a Silhouette Portrait done. It was created with the face sideways and cut out of black paper.

At one stage the Silhouette Portrait was very much the in-thing, the fashion as they say, the thing to do that everyone had done.

‘The person whose portrait was to be taken would sit sideways before a screen.

A light on a table on the other side of he or she and in this way cast a clear shadow upon the screen of the persons outline, which gave a perfect portrait if the light and sitter were arranged properly.

Then the outline would be traced upon the screen, and from this it was transferred, on a small scale, to a sheet of special black paper, then cut out, and glued on card paper.

Some very famous people hard their portraits taken this way and some were even of the full body of a person.

You too can make silhouette portraits of your family and friends.

All you need do is to put some paper, (poster size would be better, like A3) on a flat wall.

The paper could be white on one side and black on the other side, so after the image was drawn if cut out it would have a black image of the sitter on the back.

Then get the subject who we are taking the portrait sit still in front of the wall, with a bright light on a table so that it casts a shadow of the person on the paper on the wall.  

Then, with a pencil, we draw carefully round the outline of the shadow, and afterwards cut it out, and if we used it as a template trace it out on black paper with white crown or cut around it.

This is a jolly bit of fun for all the family to partake should they want to.

All the best from
James M Sandbrook.

5th of May, 2021.