Drawing Tuesday - silhouettes

 "Is a shadow a silhouette?"

The art of silhouette making arose from shadows cast onto a wall and drawn around, in the days before cameras captured the likeness of our loved ones and not everyone could afford to have a portrait painted. (As now.) 

"Two hundred years ago, long before the camera was invented, someone wishing to have an inexpensive portrait created of their loved ones would have visited a silhouette artist.  Within minutes and using only a pair of scissors and a skillful eye, he would have produced a wonderful little image with a remarkable resemblance to his subject.

The name Silhouette traces back to the mid-18th century French finance minister, Etienne de Silhouette. Because his name was synonymous with doing things cheaply and because he was fond of making these images himself, this artform was named after him."

That's a quote from a commercial site, but the Wikipedia article has more info and some examples - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette . Note the frame of the first illustration - very nicely presented!

Artists who come to mind in connection with silhouettes are Lotte Reiniger (hand-crafted animated films), William Kentridge (spectacle on the banks of the Tiber), Kara Walker (exploration of race, stereotypes, gender, and identity throughout American history), but Google identifies quite a few more - search for "silhouette artists famous" and you'll find Elvis Costello among them. This American "girl who cuts up" (b.1894) continued the silhouette art until the 1950s, working as a travelling silhouettist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Sherman . Among her 10,000 works are 10 presidential portraits.

Back to shadows. Yes, shadow puppets are silhouettes. They give a flat, definite outline. A shadow of a person's profile, too, is based on the contour and gives "a flat slice". Shadows cast by trees, though - they're made up of many layers, as can be seen by the degrees of fuzziness of the edges of closer and farther away leaves. 

How about the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster, then? Their piles of what looks like random junk are lit in such a way that surprising shadows emerge - https://www.artworksforchange.org/portfolio/tim-noble-and-sue-webster/

From Ann - Yes, is a shadow a silhouette?! On our daily walk with the sun shining brightly I photographed this pic of my husband and foliage! By chance but fortunate!

From Sue K -  based on a pic I took looking up through ginko lives into blue sky. 

l worked in Illustrator to give it a more graphic look.

From Sue B - shadows on a rose i copied from a photo sent by a friend last year…using chalks and charcoal

From Gill - A local tree drawn without leaves .

From Najlaa - This is my silhouette

From Judith - My sons and their daughters in Greenwich Park

From Joyce - in lockdown I took part in the 1 week 100 people sketchbook challenge. Since we were told to stay at home these had to be mostly from photos. I used photos of my grandchildren and the paintings started out as silhouettes to which I then added pen and details. It was a good way to start as it made me look at the overall shape first.

From Mags - When I bought a couple of  cloth head tubes a few years ago , I kept the cardboard heads they came on.  I used them as a template to draw round  and for another version  of   ' unsuitable clothing ' expressing  my irritation with what designers regard as suitable fabrics for face masks! 

From Carol - Here is me on the beach last week, an attempt to posterize a photo.

From me - The idea of framing came from a magazine advert, the woman stepping through a "window" into a landscape. I found other images in magazines and added frames.