Silhouettes (3-5)

You Will Need the Following:

• Drawing Paper
• Water color
• Paint brushes
• Black construction paper

This project will take about two 40 minute periods.

Explain what a silhouette is and that it is created when an object is lit from behind. The viewer does not see any details in a silhouette. Because of the lack of details, artists will use silhouettes when they want to draw attention to other parts of a piece of art. Or in contrast, silhouettes can be used to create drama in a piece.

Have the students fill a piece of white paper with water color. Stress that they are drawing a background only. They should not be painting any actual objects.

The second step is to have the students cut out small, medium and large objects. Explain that artist use size and placement in objects to create distance. If an object is close to the viewer it will be placed on the bottom of the page and will be rather large. If an object is meant to appear far away, it will be placed on the top of the page and will be smaller.

Encourage the students to do objects from nature, landforms, or architectural elements. And point out to them that the more complex their forms are, the more interesting their piece will be.