Chapter 2 | SILHOUETTES

A silhouette is a shadow shape that is often created in bright backlight. Within this shadow shape it is completely dark. As an example, I used a black marker to make silhouettes of dancing figures. By making them completely dark without any details, they look like figures from a shadow play. Of course you can also choose a dark color since shadows are not always black in real life.

Exercise 1: cut out pictures of figures (eg people, animals) from sheets, trace them on a piece of paper and make a shadow play by darkening them with a pencil, chalk, marker or paint. Of course you can also choose a dark color since shadows are not always pitch black in real life.

Exercise 2: Shadows can be mysterious and even creepy. They are used a lot in films. In the following film shot from an old film, you see the projection on the wall of a creepy figure walking up a staircase to a door. Using a soft pencil (2B or larger), draw this entire shot on a small format (e.g. 15 x 10 or 12 x 8 cm.) and possibly think of another creepy silhouette walking up the stairs. Try to draw all the shadows and shades of gray without hard contour lines beforehand. On coarser paper, you can make the shadows darker.

EXTRA: Make up your own small shadow play.

In this children’s drawing, a kitten is horrified by the monstrous shadow shape on the wall. The kitten does not know that it is his own drop shadow, which is created by a bright spot of light shining on the ground just behind him (a so-called footlight). More about drop shadows in the next chapter.

The startled kitten