Now getting one of a child could be near impossible if you try to do it the old fashioned way (by tracing the shadow from the sunlight or a lamp). However, with some photo editing software and a picture snapped of the profile, I was able to create the perfect old fashioned silhouette of a child.
This was the picture (I cropped it down to just what I needed, which was basically just the profile bust) we started out with.
As you can see, it is nothing fancy, nothing special. It doesn't even have all that much contrast (which would make it easier) but still works fine. If you want to make it super easy on yourself, have the child stand in front of a sunny window so they're totally backlit. Then you'll essentially have the silhouette to start with, and simply cutting and pasting with a teeny bit of adjusting will be all that is necessary.
What you want to do is take this photo and using your photo editing software, select or manually outline the profile and around the head. Don't worry too much about getting all the hair exactly, just try to use a smooth and continuous line around the back of the head and below the neck. The part you really want to be picky about is following around the face. Don't take shortcuts there, but everything else can kind of be fudged.
Once you have the outline traced, its a simple paint job. Fill the inside of the line with black and the outside with white (or vice versa).
Then you end up with something like this:
Now, you can print this out either on colored paper, or white, or whatever you can run through your printer.
You can also print it out on regular white and the cut it out and paste it on a differing background.
I printed out a few as I wanted to try different things to finish them off. I also chose a few different sizes. Silhouettes were typically done on a life sized or smaller scale. Most of the ones I've seen are very small jewelry size. So I used a smaller scale as well. This serves as your friend as it smooths out some of your rough lines, and minimizes any jagged or pixelated edges.
Here are some examples of what I did with the one silhouette:
"Framed" vintage looking photo (foam circle with tulle and ribbon, everything is layered and hot glued in place):
A modern art version (glued on foam circles that are glued together with a hollow rectangle paper backing:
A framed piece cut from scrapbook paper (I just traced the original and cut it out):
And one for the scrapbook:
And I printed a teeny one to go in my locket.
So as you can see, these babies can be as vintage or modern as you want them to be, and can fill a variety of needs/designs.
It's so fun that they're super easy to do!
So, have fun!
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