Silhouette painting

For Jaron's birthday, I decided to do a silhouette painting of the boys.  I have seen them across blogland and on pinterest and just really love them.  I love the vintage feel of them and their simplicity.  The process was really easy.  I wish I had taken pictures along the way, to show the process, but my blog was broken at the time so I didn't think it was necessary to do a step-by-step tutorial because I thought I wouldn't have been able to share.  Here are some basic steps written out below:

1.  Take a profile picture of your child against a solid color wall (no busy wallpapers). 
2.  Load the picture from your camera to your computer.
3.  In Microsoft Word or Publisher or whatever program you prefer, insert the picture.  Increase the size of the photo by clicking on it and pulling on the corner of the photo until it is the size you desire.  I first cropped my photos, getting as close as I could to the faces and then made the faces about the size of the page. 
4.  Print the photo.
5.  Using a good pair of scissors, cut out the picture.  Be very careful to get any details you want to include (hair, bows, eyelashes, etc.). 
6.  Trace this image onto a blank piece of paper and then draw a bust.  I went with a very traditional looking bust with a collared shirt.  You can always add details here if you'd like.  For example, my boys have really long hair and I wanted to make sure you could see some of the layers and things, so I drew in some choppy pieces of hair that the camera didn't quite catch. 
7.  Then cut out this entire image.
8.  Trace this image onto a canvas or a board if you are doing a painting.  I have seen many that just have this image cut out onto scrapbook paper and framed and those are nice too. 
9.  Paint the silhouette in the desired color.  I went with traditional black, but have seen some really nice ones in various colors.  Make sure you have a really small tipped paintbrush. 
10.  Embellish around the silhouette as desired.  I went with rounded frames with a gray background and a scalloped black frame.  I did a leather technique of maroon on the remainder of the canvas. 

The up close view of Ryan's painted silhouette. 

This is an example of one of the profile pictures I took of Cannon.  Notice how his hair in this picture didn't quite fall right, so I added some wispy pieces on the painting. 

Here's little Parker!  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep him still long enough to get the shot, but thanks to Dad we were successful.

Ryan looks so thrilled to have his "mug shot" taken.  Teenager three years too early!

Jaron loved his birthday present.  I looks nice hanging in the living room and sort of makes things complete, I think.  :)

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