Spectacular Silhouettes

Students can use Wixie to easily combine painted silhouettes with background images. This works especially well to create a spooky scene at Halloween.

A silhouette is a sharp outline or shadow of an object all in a single color, usually black. The word silhouette actually comes from the name of an 18th century French finance minister, Ètienne de Silhouette, who would cut out paper shadow portraits of his friends to give as gifts.

Have students begin by using paper and pencil to draw the outline of a person and fill it in or challenge them to use scissors and black construction paper to cut out a silhouette of a student sitting next to them.

Once they get the idea, have students begin a blank project in Wixie.

Students can use Wixie's Paintbrush tool to draw the complete outline of a silhouette. Then use the Paintbucket tool to fill with black.

Assign the Silhouette Art template with a spooky background and ask students to use the paintbrush to draw silhouettes of Halloween objects like bats, cats, and gravestones.

Silhouette Art Template

If you want to give students control over the image in the background, teach them how to use the Page Picture button to change the background on the page so it displays behind the silhouette, or silhouettes.

Print the images for an at-school or in-community art exhibit. If you created spooky silhouettes, you could also use student work to decorate your classroom or school.