Train Themes

If you haven’t figured it out by now, you’ll soon see I am all about sentimentality and family. That’s why I am especially enthused about a new theme for some of the full figure silhouettes I do. When I do a full figure silhouette of a child (usually a group – siblings), I photograph them one at a time – usually holding their favorite toy or blanket. Then I hand cut the full figure silhouettes based on my favorite elements from those photos. Perhaps I like the placement of the hands in one photo but the feet are perfect in another. I combine the best of the poses and create a “Norman Rockwell” effect in a silhouette. Well… with my newest “train theme,” I still do these poses and photograph them first (only for the full figure… I can do them without photos of course, but for these, I really like to play with a variety of poses and a full figure pose is a bit more demanding – much more demanding than the average head/shoulder pose). For a train theme, after photographing the children with their favorite items or one of my favorite poses that will work well in the space, I hand cut them and place them on a toy train. I have found that this arrangement is excellent for tying the figures all together. It also tells a bit of a story a little more fluidly. One of the best things I love about the full figure silhouettes in siblings is that you will always be able to look at that piece of art and remember at a glance how big they were in relation to each other. They are shown playing together and you can get a sense all at once of the children’s roll within the family. You’ll see the girl who loves dolls or the boy who loves his teddy bear. And, the pets!!! Oh, I love to add pets! So much – that for these, I will add in pets for free (for now) if you let me do them generically. What that means is, if you have 2 dachshunds and a great dane,  you will let me hand cut their silhouettes completely by my own sketch or design – not based on an actual photo. This is to prevent too much time, keep the cost down, and allow me to use creative license to make the arrangement as pleasing to the eye as possible. So I do your children to look just like them, and I do dogs or cats etc., to look like their breed – or perhaps your brief description.

So if you look at this example, you’ll see two different families. The group above are siblings, 2 girls, 2 boys, 2 dogs. They are shown either holding a favorite toy and/or doing an action that works well with the design of the piece. And same with the bottom group. They are siblings as well, 2 girls and one boy, one cat and one dog. (Both groups are cousins to each other). I asked a few questions about the pets and we let them pose with favorite stuffed animals etc. I also let one child in the bottom blow bubbles to help add some movement.