Water Color Resist (Part Two): Silhouette for Dad

This is definitely a fun step up from a traditional silhouette! What a cool gift your kids can proudly give their Dads. I love how colorful and graphic they came out!

Take a picture of your child's profile. (Remember your picture will come out facing the opposite direction.) Preferably use a white background. (I saved over the original photo but this is an out take to give you an idea.)

This next step is not a necessary but can be helpful. Pump up the contrast in Photoshop or something similar. Print to the size you want for your silhouette. Tape to a window.

Tape a piece of contact paper (edit: Use Removable Contact Paper) on top. Paper side facing out.

Trace with a sharpie or similar. Cut out with exacto knife. Now you have a positive and a negative. Peal off backing and place on center of heavy paper. Make sure edges are smoothed down.

Paint with water color.


Let dry. Carefully peal off contact paper. We had some issues with the paper pealing off with the contact paper. I am going to try different paper next time and not rubbing the center. I also have some cheaper contact paper that may not be as sticky. This looks great matted and in a frame. Let me know if you try this and how they come out! (edit: Use Removable Contact Paper! You wont have any sticking problems. Thanks for the tip Painted Maypole.)

This did not work out as well. A lot of the paper pealed off making it look messy.