Image created by Maritza Lohman, for Art Sphere Inc.
Kara Walker is an African American artist who uses silhouettes to depict scenes of slavery. You can check out Kara Walker’s work on her website. You can also check out this video of a sculpture Kara Walker made. Today, create your own Kara Walker inspired piece with silhouettes!
This project is one of the virtual classes exploring women artists, hosted on Facebook Live from 1:30-2pm every Wednesday and Friday. Materials and instructions are posted here afterwards. Tune into the live classes to ask questions, give suggestions, and interact with other students who are stuck at home!
If you want to watch the recording of the live video, check out our Facebook page or Youtube channel!
Materials
- black construction paper
- white construction paper (or blank white paper)
- scissors
- glue
- pencil
Instructions
- What kind of scene do you want to create? A man and his dog? A birthday party? A scene from your favorite movie? Someone’s profile?
- Once you have decided, I suggest drawing the scene lightly with a pencil on your black construction paper. Since a silhouette is the outline of a person, animal or object, focus on the outline and not the details.
- Note that if you have multiple people or objects in your scene, you can draw them and cut them out separately, and then glue them onto the white paper wherever you would like them to be.
- Once you have finished your outline, cut them out carefully.
- Before using glue, lay out your silhouettes (people and objects) how you imagined them on your white paper.
- When all the silhouettes are where you want them to be, glue them down.
- Finally, show off your art and teach your friends and family about Kara Walker!