2,716
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Caricaturist to Silhouettist (and back again) (view source)
Revision as of 02:25, 3 August 2020
, 02:25, 3 August 2020Created page with "==Article Transcript== Research was also needed, to learn about various things: the history of silhouettes, scissor types, backing cards and their design, pastes, special silh..."
==Article Transcript==
Research was also needed, to learn about
various things: the history of silhouettes,
scissor types, backing cards and their
design, pastes, special silhouette papers.
I bought the two how-to books that I
could find: Silhouettes: Rediscovering
a Lost Art and Mastering Silhouettes:
Expert Instruction in the Art of Silhouette
Portraiture. Finally, I looked at the
work of the small number of practicing
silhouette artists worldwide who share on
social media. As with caricatures, there are
different styles —
from completely elegant
and non-editorial, to slightly skewed, to
overt caricature) —
and skill levels, from
the generic to the extremely specific. One
artist I especially admire is a Brit named
Charles Burns, (he wrote one of the how-to
books above) learn more about him at
www.roving-artist.com/charles-burns.
My first public cutting was at the following
ISCA 2015 convention, and my
first actual gig was a big one: five days
of four-hour shifts at the Star Trek 2016
Convention in Las Vegas! Since then, I’ve
started marketing this skill more seriously, and regular gigs (weddings, sweet 16s, grad
parties) are starting to come in. My eventual
goal is to have half caricature gigs and
half silhouette gigs.
A good silhouette can have as much likeness
to its subject as any other form of representational
art…but it is distilled into a linear form.
Folks seem shocked that I’m not drawing the
profile first! Even though the all-important
eyes are not shown in a silhouette, they are
inferred by the placement of other features,
and the inclusion of eyelashes, the cutting
of which absolutely delights those watching.
(So far that’s been the moment when people
exclaim, “WOW!”)
Some of the benefits of silhouetting for me,
so far, are: not needing to carry around as
much for a gig as I do for caricature. It also
seems to be easier to stop for a few moments
than when caricaturing. This probably
has to do with how fast silhouettes are compared
to live caricature (90 seconds vs. 4 or 5
minutes…cutting silhouettes makes drawing
caricatures seem like an eternity!!)
However, I don’t think I’ll ever escape the
“Don’t give me a double chin” crowd!
==YouTube Video==
<youtube>qwL1elNSz0c</youtube>
Research was also needed, to learn about
various things: the history of silhouettes,
scissor types, backing cards and their
design, pastes, special silhouette papers.
I bought the two how-to books that I
could find: Silhouettes: Rediscovering
a Lost Art and Mastering Silhouettes:
Expert Instruction in the Art of Silhouette
Portraiture. Finally, I looked at the
work of the small number of practicing
silhouette artists worldwide who share on
social media. As with caricatures, there are
different styles —
from completely elegant
and non-editorial, to slightly skewed, to
overt caricature) —
and skill levels, from
the generic to the extremely specific. One
artist I especially admire is a Brit named
Charles Burns, (he wrote one of the how-to
books above) learn more about him at
www.roving-artist.com/charles-burns.
My first public cutting was at the following
ISCA 2015 convention, and my
first actual gig was a big one: five days
of four-hour shifts at the Star Trek 2016
Convention in Las Vegas! Since then, I’ve
started marketing this skill more seriously, and regular gigs (weddings, sweet 16s, grad
parties) are starting to come in. My eventual
goal is to have half caricature gigs and
half silhouette gigs.
A good silhouette can have as much likeness
to its subject as any other form of representational
art…but it is distilled into a linear form.
Folks seem shocked that I’m not drawing the
profile first! Even though the all-important
eyes are not shown in a silhouette, they are
inferred by the placement of other features,
and the inclusion of eyelashes, the cutting
of which absolutely delights those watching.
(So far that’s been the moment when people
exclaim, “WOW!”)
Some of the benefits of silhouetting for me,
so far, are: not needing to carry around as
much for a gig as I do for caricature. It also
seems to be easier to stop for a few moments
than when caricaturing. This probably
has to do with how fast silhouettes are compared
to live caricature (90 seconds vs. 4 or 5
minutes…cutting silhouettes makes drawing
caricatures seem like an eternity!!)
However, I don’t think I’ll ever escape the
“Don’t give me a double chin” crowd!
==YouTube Video==
<youtube>qwL1elNSz0c</youtube>
