Photoshop Tutorial: Silhouettes

My first Photoshop tutorial! It is created using a fabulous program called Jing. This photoshop tutorial was created in a swf file , so hopefully you will be able to watch it…you may need to download the latest version of Flash to watch it. I sort of zoom through the tutorial because I only had 5 minutes to show everything (the limit on jing).

Here’s the project: creating a family silhouette art piece for your living room. I show you how to create this silhouette in photoshop and then take it into Illustrator for clean up. I’d suggest the tutorial for intermediate users, but if you are a beginner, it wouldn’t hurt you to watch it! You can pause it as you work on your own.

I created my first silhouette of Siri when she was 2 years old. I thought it was a great way to document the subtle changes in my little girl. I have the screenprint of that piece in my living room. I love silhouettes and my original idea was to hang individual tiny portraits of each member of the family. However, do you know how HARD it is to find a decent oval frame? So I decided to go with the square frame and put all of us (my husband, Josh, myself, and two daughters) into one piece. Inexpensive art, always a plus!

Want to watch a larger version of this video? Click here.

Be Sociable, Share!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 11:23 pm. It is filed under Quick Fixes & Projects, Stuff I Love, Tutorials and tagged with Family, photoshop, project, silhouette. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

←

→

Jessica Taufer says:

June 24, 2009 at 1:10 pm

Great tutorial! I am trying to make one like this of my family. I have a question- I can’t figure out where the “trace” tool is that you used to smooth out the edges (in Illustrator).

I think your blog is the greatest! Thanks for all the great design inspirations!
Jessica

June 24, 2009 at 1:14 pm

Oh, I just thought of something, I have Illustrator CS. Maybe CS doesn’t have the trace tool.

June 24, 2009 at 2:09 pm

I just finished it without using the trace tool. It’s looks fine. Thanks anyway! Sorry!

July 20, 2009 at 7:02 pm

Here it is finished.

I just printed it on normal white paper, but I think I will get it professionally printed eventually.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3514568&l=171848fe26&id=674957628

Silhouette Example | carina gardner's studio & blog says:

July 21, 2009 at 11:04 am

[...] got an email from someone who did the Photoshop Silhoutte Tutorial and I wanted to show it off here! Jessica Taufer is the owner of Utah Baby Guide and said that she [...]

Silhouette says:

April 3, 2010 at 8:22 am

[...] then I used a FANTABULOUS Video tutorial from Carina Gardner on making Silhouettes … CHECK Carina’s tutorial out HERE! to make [...]