Comments on: How to make silhouette artwork.

By: jens

jens — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:33:16 +0000

so cool! my mom will totally love these for Christmas and they’re totally within my budget!! thank you so much!

By: sue1788

sue1788 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:38:16 +0000

Great idea.. now if only I can figure out how to outline the image.. having a hard time with the pen. any other suggestions?

SAJ says: Try the lasso tool (sideways of the pen tool) or if your background is lighter/darker than your subject you might be able to make a selection by clicking on the color… If you’re new to photoshop I know this can be really hard. You could just print out the photo and cut it out as a pattern too. :)

By: deb

deb — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:39:04 +0000

I love this tutorial Brenda. Please consider doing more. I think a lot of people have Photoshop, Elements or Gimp but it’s quite a challenge to learn, and if you don’t use them often it’s difficult to remember how to accomplish things and short cuts. I pretty much get the technical part; it’s the creativity I’m lacking. I would never have thought to do silhouettes any way except the way we did them in kindergarten. The printing tip to save ink was super smart. Really appreciate the advice from a pro!

By: a chris

a chris — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:15:33 +0000

Anna-b: it’s not hard if you stay in photoshop (or GIMP if you don’t have ps) and fill the selection in with black and outside it with white the way Brenda describes. The file just takes more space on your drive (and in your RAM) in that case, and depending on the resolution of the picture, it may come out a little less smooth as a raster image. But that won’t matter once your knife or scissors take over!

By: gingermog

gingermog — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:33:47 +0000

This is a lovely idea. Thank you for the Tutorial SAJ I think I will try this out with my younger nephew and niece this Xmas. Happy Thanksgiving :)

By: Anna-b-bonkers

Anna-b-bonkers — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:19:43 +0000

So cool! I am going to try this….the hard way cause I don’t think I have illustrator, hmmm, not sure.

By: CAROL S-U

CAROL S-U — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:13:03 +0000

NICE!!! Thanks for the tutorial!! Would be a fun project with the big girls outta school this week… :)

By: a chris

a chris — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:14:31 +0000

I remember these from when I was a kid!! I think we had some done on the spot at a fair or something. I’d forgotten all about it.

Something I’ve occasionally wondered: do you use your mouse for drawing in Illustrator etc., or do you have a tablet? I can’t draw with a mouse. But a tablet makes a laptop a bit less portable, harder to work on the fly, so it’s hard to picture someone curled up at a coffee shop or on the couch freelancing away with a tablet.

By: Mickey

Mickey — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:16:41 +0000

Thank you for the detailed instructions…it’s just what I need. I tried to make a silhouette in Photoshop a couple of years ago and failed. It was frustrating and my friend ended up doing it for me. But now I can use your instructions and try again. You’re the best!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

By: Gramma

Gramma — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:17:48 +0000

Somehow I remember in days gone by that we put the subject behind a hanging sheet with a lamp behind subject…we did the silhouettes freehand using the shadow as a guide…your tutorial method seems much more accurate.