How to Create a Profile Silhouette in Illustrator

This clear, sharp profile makes an ideal subject for a silhouette.

Silhouettes reduce an object or figure to one color, simplifying faces and forms to "shadow portraits," as some devotees dubbed the artform when it emerged in 18th century England and Europe. Early silhouettes usually consisted of cutouts and paintings, many of them depicting the human profile, though some feature landscapes, animals and plants. Today's "profilist" can use the powerful tools in Adobe Illustrator to create the digital equivalent of a technique whose practitioners have ranged from famous professionals to untrained or anonymous amateurs.

Things You'll Need

• Digital or digitized photograph

Instructions

1. Launch Adobe Illustrator and open the image file that contains your silhouette subject. Activate the Selection tool and click on your image to select it. Open the Edit menu and choose "Copy" to copy your bitmap to the clipboard. Before you close your image file, make note of the color mode displayed in the title bar of the file window.

2. Create a new Adobe Illustrator document in the same color mode as your image file. Open the Window menu and choose "Layers" to bring up the Layers panel if it isn't already visible. Open the Edit menu and choose "Paste" to add your bitmap onto the default Layer 1 of your Illustrator file. Click in the column between the visibility eyeball and the name of Layer 1 to lock its contents so you can't accidentally disturb the image while you're drawing.

3. Open the fly-out menu at the top-right corner of the Layers panel and choose "New Layer." When the New Layer dialog box comes up on your screen, name your layer "Artwork" and click on the "OK" button to create it.

4. Hold down the "Control" key (Windows) or "Command" key (Mac) and press the "+" key until your view of your image zooms close enough that you can see your subject matter clearly. Hold down the space bar to activate the Hand tool and reposition your view if it's off center.

5. Switch to the Pen tool. Click on the "Stroke" swatch in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox to bring it forward, then double-click on it to display the Color Picker. Set your stroke color to a shade that contrasts well with your photo so you can see your work clearly as you draw. A bright red -- zero percent cyan, 100 percent magenta, 100 percent yellow, zero percent black -- often provides an ideal choice. Click on the "OK" button to finish setting your stroke color.

6. Click and drag around your subject to create an outline with the Pen tool, starting at the lower-left or lower-right corner of your image. To make your outline smooth, use as few anchor points as possible. Set a new anchor point each time your drawing path changes direction.

7. Click on top of your opening anchor point to close the path when you finish drawing around your subject. Click on the "None" swatch in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox to remove your stroke color and thus your stroke itself. Bring the "Fill" swatch forward, then double-click on it to bring up the Color Picker. Enter "0" in the "B" -- brightness -- value of the HSB section of the Color Picker to set your fill color to black. Click on the "OK" button to confirm your color selection.

8. Click off the visibility eyeball for Layer 1, the document layer that contains your source image. Evaluate your drawing, then use the Direct Selection tool to select and reposition any anchor points that need to be adjusted. Drag "Layer 1" to the Delete Selection icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to delete it, then save your file.

Tips & Warnings

• Adobe Illustrator provides a Templat" mode into which you can place layers that contain subject matter you're trying to trace. Unfortunately, template mode reduces the opacity of any bitmapped image to 50 percent, making it difficult to see.

• The best photos for silhouette drawings show their subjects in full profile. Unless you're trying to draw a "guess-the-mystery-person" image, avoid head-on shots and three-quarter views.

• Because silhouettes eliminate the kinds of details that distinguish between people's left and right profiles, you can use the Reflect tool to produce a left profile from a right and vice versa, if a suitable photograph isn't available.

• Avoid the legal issues that arise when you create images based on photos you don't have the rights to use. Choose silhouette subjects from your own photographs, royalty-free images you've licensed or Creative Commons images that the photographer placed in the public domain.

References

• The Book and Paper Group Annual, Volume 18; Shades and Shadow-Pictures: The Materials and Techniques of American Portrait Silhouettes
• Adobe Systems: Using Adobe Illustrator CS5

Resources

• The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Wow! Book; Sharon Steuer
• Real World Adobe Illustrator CS5; Mordy Golding
• Adobe Illustrator CS5 Bible; Ted Alspach
• Illustrator CS5 for Windows and Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide; Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas
• Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One for Dummies; Jennifer Smith, et al.