America's premier silhouette artist Gallery by Cindi

SILHOUETTE PORTRAIT GALLERY

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Presidential Museums feature American Silhouette Artist Cindi Rose

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History of Silhouette Art/History of Silhouette Artists, Silhouette Artist HistoryConsise History of Silhouette art, past and present

Collaborated by internationally acclaimed silhouette historian Peggy McClardand master silhouette artist Cindi Harwood Rose. Miniature portraits had been the rage of aristocracy whom had worn portraits as jewelry since at least the 15th century.  But for 300 years, the expense required for a full color likeness to be commissioned had restricted the availability to the wealthy and kept the ordinary person from acquiring a portable likeness of their loved ones.
At the beginning of the 18th century a theory called “physiognomy” became vogue.  “Physiognomy” was defined as the art of discerning the character of the mind from the features of the face.  In 1775, Swiss theologian and poet Johann Kaspar Lavater wrote a treatise Physiognomische Fragmente in which he attempted to elevate physiognomy to the level of science.  The translated version of Lavater’s book was a best seller in England and the book’s heavy use of silhouettes to illustrate Lavater’s theories helped elevate the popularity of silhouette cutting.
With the advent of Lavater’s widely read treatise, shade portraits became popular with the masses as a cheaper alternative to full color portraits.  Originally called "Profile Shades" or "Shadows" in England, the French coined the term à la Silhouette as a derogatory reference to Louis XV's former French Minister of Finance, Etienne de Silhouette, who was considered a cheapskate.  Legend says that when de Silhouette left his government position, he retired to a farmhouse which he decorated with home-made paper cuttings.
The History of Silhouettes - Part 2

The History of the Silhouette

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How to hand-cut a silhouette

People always ask me "how did you learn to cut portraits freehand?

The truth is I never did learn, I just could always draw anything and anyone in pencils and crayons. From my sketch pad, I got a job as a portrait artist as a teenager for a Disney owned art company in Dallas and Houston, Texas as well as Disneyland in California and Florida.  I had never had an art lesson, but my mother was an artist and I would paint and draw by her side, and draw everywhere I went.

When I saw my first silhouette artist (not the kind teachers do as those are not artists, they are tracing a shadow from the wall, and a shadow is blocked light and a bit distorted), I had to try it!  I told the Disney art concession owner, Jess Rubio, that "I could do that!"  Meaning I could take strange scissors and tiny, thin black paper and cut the likeness of someone sitting down or standing up directly from the paper without a sketch first, and in a few minutes.  I now can cut a portrait profile in  a minute with full details when I speed! 

However, to tell you how to do it, please watch this video where I explain that the silhouette is a contour drawing with scissors. In the same way you measure facial features with your thumb to draw, you measure them with your scissors to cut.  The type of scissors is not key.  Looking at the person (or pet, house, scene) is crucial and getting the perspectives correct as well as the features correctly is as important as and how they combine. Please don't judge the way I explain the art, I did not mean to come off "arrogant", I was merely nervous as I had so much to say (not rehearsed) and in a few minutes. Please be kind, if you leave a comment!  

The best way to practice cutting is to buy barber scissors, or any medical scissors, and to order HyGloss silhouette paper from a school supply store.  Get it pre-cut as you want your artwork to be a miniature, not large, as that is the true art size.  The large ones are the ones traced from the wall or painted by someone who can't cut a silhouette from sight. Use the white side of the paper to cut if you have real silhouette paper from HyGloss, as shown in the video and photo.  Otherwise, tape white paper to your black paper to see what you are cutting as you work!  

You can start by sketching and cutting, until you are able to figure out how to directly cut the portrait.  It is normally of the profile. But for fun, I have done cut artworks of front views and front view scenes.   

I got the job as a "silhouette artist" the next day after I attempted my first hand-cut silhouette. Working in a large amusement park is the best practice.  I would tell people that I would cut their portrait (not their face) and if they did not like it, they did not have to buy it!  Oddly, almost everyone bought it, as I was very friendly, which is also important when you work with corporations, in public events, private functions, weddings, holiday parties, or Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.  I also try to flatter people, and that means leaving off some of the double chin, or making their bodice slimmer.  This is called "artistic license."  I also would come home and get magazines and practice cutting the faces and people out from the magazines as a way to learn to directly cut profiles and full bodies from sight.

You can always cheat by the Photoshop, or taking the profile photo and taping black paper to it, and cutting that out.  It will lose details and be "less of who you are" not more, which a true silhouette should be 4 D, not 3 D, or 2 D.  It should incorporate personality and feeling.  The ones done from photos are taking something 2D and then altering it.  This is true of the wall tracings, which require an overhead light and paper taped on the wall.  You actually have to cast a shadow and then draw the shadow (ask the person to not smile as teeth do not look good in profile cut paper silhouettes). Next, you cut that out, with any scissors.  This is not an accurate silhouette which is named after a French minister of finance, who loved the real silhouettes by a real silhouette artist named Augustine Edouard.  He was appalled at the wall-traced ones and the ones by a physiotrace machine as in the Peale Museum.  Those are simple and the elaborate ones with details are the ones you want to emulate, not by computer design as those are not in human proportion.  I notice the necks and back of the heads are off with that.  The art should be authentic, and you should give it a shot.  If you then want to do it the other-way (photo, cutting that after pasting black paper behind it)-- go ahead.  Silly silhouette thoughts to you, for sensational silhouette memories!  http://www.silhouettesbycindi.com

Silhouette Artist  Cindi for Super Corporate Events

Regardless if you are having a business convention, holiday party, fashionable store style function, silhouette artist Cindi Harwood Rose can WOW your guests and give them a keepsake in a minute a person.  Not only is she the world's fastest silhouettest, she is the top paper profile professional freehand cutter in history! Watch the video and see how Cindi just looks at you and hand-cuts an amazing detailed portrait.  She has been hired in New York City for Mac, Bergdorf-Goodman, fashion week, Saks Fifth Avenue, swanky weddings, Levi's, Tootsies, PaperMag.com, in Dallas for the showrooms, for Houston Fashion Week, the Europec OTC, Auto shows, Canadian audiology conventions and almost any business you can think of.  Corporations or bride and grooms can add their logo to the card-stock or gift each person with a frame. http://www.silhouettesbycindi.com

Cindi travels world-wide to do silhouettes of clients, and can cut more silhouettes (of great detail) per hour than any other silhouette talent anywhere!  It is the real art, she does not need to sketch first.  She can also sketch portraits, but the accuracy of directly cutting the profile is excellent, and she can do groupings together, as seen below!  Very few silhouette artists have mastered the groupings which are so popular for families and couples! 

 For more information, you can e-mail CindiSilhouettes@gmail.com  

Hire a silhouette artist for your wedding/wedding reception silhouette artist Cindi Rose

Weddings are sentimental.  They are celebrations of love and union.  When choosing gifts and favors there is nothing more special than a hand-cut profile by a real silhouette artist.  Most people have never seen an authentic silhouette artist.  A true silhouettest merely looks at the subject with real French silhouette paper (white on one side, black on the other, very thin, very black paper, acid-free, costly) and in miniature (not large that has less value) they cut the profile out in two minutes or less.

You can see from this photo and video of silhouette artistry for wedding guests and entertainment that even children find this art amazing and fascinating!http://www.sihouettesbycindi.com

The most Famous silhouette artist Cindi Rose hand-cuts profiles of the famous for over 35 years!

Silhouettes of celebrities at
non-profit and political events by Cindi Rose won her an award as a "Women of Distinction" as she donates her money to various causes from her art proceeds and philanthropy work.  The first silhouette is of Bo Derek done for the Motion Picture Industry, as Cindi has had speaking parts in movies as Cindi Rae Rose and Cindi Harwood and was Sag-Aftra.  The second silhouette is Barbara Bush done for the "Friends of Nursing" in Houston, Texas.  The third is music great composer, Isack Pearlman done for the Houston Symphony, at an event Cindi Rose helped chair and underwrite. The silhouette of President Obama was done at one of his early political campaigns.  The one of Vienna Giraldi of The Bachelor was done for Cindi's husband, noted plastic surgeon, Dr. Franklin Rose.  It was to show the patient what her before and after "nose-job" would look like.  Patricia Arquette had her silhouette done to save Haiti. Cindi gave "love" to offer housing to victims of Haiti, with her silhouette proceeds.  Finally, music legend, Liberace, had his silhouette done by Cindi Harwood at Disney World.  The guest relations always knew that Cindi would kindly do any celebrities silhouette in the park.  Cindi Harwood Rose has done more celebrities in person, than any other living silhouette artist of this era.

How to hand-cut a cameo silhouette!

How to make a silhouette portrait of your dog, cat, child, self, or loved one.

There are many ways to make a silhouette of yourself or a loved one, all being different, some basic, and not exact.  Many are merely black and are shadows cast on walls, with black construction paper behind them. This idea is the subject sits sill the light casts a shadow, you try to sketch it (without your hand getting in the way), next you try to cut it from your markings although, you may hold a scissors wrong, or not follow exact lines.  Or perhaps your subject did not pose correctly, and smiled.

Teeth are cute but they often can make a nose longer, and a chin appear double!  I know we threw away the crude one a school teacher did when I was 8!  Plus, all the kids in her class looked the same!

No, all children do not look the same, nor are all fingerprints the same or snowflakes.

Another way is to darken a profile photo on your computer.  It will still be a double reduction.  We are 3 D, a photo is 2 D, and now you will double minimize someone you should make "more than who they are not less.

Another way is just to copy a fairly nice straight-on profile shot.  Make sure the lips are relaxed and there is no smile.  See the top head the back of the head the bottom of the head, the neck and bust-line.  Tape black paper behind the photo and cut that out.  It still won't be exact since you are not skilled at drawing with scissors, and unless you order real silhouette paper from Blick or a school -supply the construction paper will fade in time and not cut as smoothly.

Normally this type of work is just black and often it is caricature style and again, minimized.  

The best way, is to not do it.  Leave it to a real portrait artist who can draw great profile portraits with a pen, pencil, pastel, paint brush.  If they are one in the over 2 million portrait artists who have learned by their own talent to hand-cut a profile of a person or pet, then you are better off going with them.  The best silhouette artists worked for Disney.  The key to look for is the inside cuts.  Novice artists can claim they are from generations of silhouette artists which has nothing to do with their skill.  You want to see they can go inside the silhouette and cut the necktie, bow-tie, earrings, lashes, tux, necklace and any detail that makes it you.  The Disneyland and Disneyworld silhouette artists, the only true master silhouette artists can do that, and they also can do groupings (not singles pasted on one sheet)-- heads cut into heads.  Don't be fooled if they tout a cheap price on the net.  The work could be great, but perhaps they are sketching and cutting losing details, or not able to do the prized groupings.  I suggest resume readings.  The customer recommendations are often written by their spouse and their friends, you can tell by the language, is that the language people would really use.  Language like "Cute Boo came in and giggled with glee to get a ___________ silhouette!  Sure, huh.  At best they say, "Cindi was professional, early, did accurate beautiful work, was kind and made my event a hit.  

Just study the internet, see who you like and check out the works in the stores.   Are they fat, is the bodice simplified to not look human, is the face in proportion, do all their children have the same face:

As for you, and your craft project, just do it.  Everyone will applaud you and clap.  For more information please see.  http://www.silhouettesbycindi.com

Flawless Skin Secrets
By Cindi Harwood Rose
Owner of Utopia MedSpa, Uptown Park
Your skin is the largest living organ of your body. It is not an inert covering such as a glove placed on your hand. It has many functions. It is the body’s protective covering against the environment and it is also the body’s principal mechanism for maintaining the temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in which all our cells and body systems are adapted to function. Perspiration, liquid waste, is given off through the skin. Adults have an average of seven pounds of skin. If it were spread out flat, it would cover about nineteen square feet. Every inch is supplied with busy working cells and responsive nerves that keep your body and mind informed about your environment.
The skin is made of three layers of different cell types. The top layer is the epidermis, the thick middle layer is the dermis and the fatty bottom layer is the subcutis. Chinese medicine incorporates skin analysis to determine Yin or Yang deficiency, and lung disharmony.
Most people do not know how to take care of their skin. They have been brain- washed through modern marketers to buy expensive products that are laden with toxic mineral oils, preservatives, colorings, perfumes, and surface-drying alcohol. This actually clogs the outer skin, stopping it from breathing and releasing the wastes your body wants to discard. The alcohol dehydrates the skin. Its purpose is to prolong shelf life. The preservatives stop the natural products such as milk, egg, placenta, and fruit extracts from molding and rotting. Do you think your skin deserves a product that even bugs do not want?
Skin-care is an ancient 3,000-year-old science that has been around in all great civilizations. The American Indians rubbed their bodies with bear grease to keep their skin moist. They participated in sweats to rid the mind and body of toxic thoughts and blockages. The Greeks cleansed the skin by oiling it with plant oils, then scraping it off

with wet bark, exfoliating their skin. The Egyptians soaked fragrant woods and resins in water and plant oils and rubbed their body and faces with the liquid. The Swedish took elaborate hot mineral baths and cold plunges to detox their skin and invigorate it. The Romans made their cold cream out of the natural organic oils. Coconut and nut oils have been used in tropical climates for thousands of years. The Orientals dry scrubbed their skin with seaweed, exfoliating it, and then moistened the epidermis with sesame oil. They soak in mineral waters laden with natural sulfurs and rub sweet almond oil and mint on the body to aid circulation. They have books on herbs such as Chan Tui (cicada husks) which are helpful for skin conditions. The Middle Eastern countries used the Olive oil for the face and hair. The French used hazelnut oil as a moisturizer. They used lavender oil on skin irritations. Only in the 1900’s, were these natural oils placed by mineral oils which are based from petroleum sludge, and are not only drying to the skin, they are poisonous. Strangely, they are in many products that we may think are safe such as Johnson’s Baby Oil, Vaseline, and Kiehl’s products. Other products such as Tiger’s Balm, Noxzema, Laura Mercier, Franche, and Aveda, have pure combinations of healthy ingredients.
Taking care of your skin involves more than just outer skin care. It involves feeding your skin from within. It is important to keep the body hydrated with six to eight glasses of water a day. If you live in a polluted climate, buy spring water. Stay away from caffeine. Try to eat natural uncooked vegetables and fruits in your diet as well as fish, eggs, seeds and nuts. Eliminate processed sugars and starches. Reduce your salt intake. Go for the whole grains found in brown rice and healthy organic flours such as kamut, barley, flaxseed, spelt, soy, and Brewer’s Yeast. Exercise tones and tightens the skin. Endermologie (a machine that exercises the skin), massage, and water therapy, all aid to skin appeal. For glowing skin, sleep is important as well as vitamins. Vitamins and minerals known to help the skin include the following: Vitamin A, B Complex, C, E, Calcium/Magnesium, Selenium, Chromium, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Coenzyme Q 10, L- Glutamine, Omega-3, omega 6 oils, folic acid, Pycnogenol, and fish oil. Dermatologist, Dr. Margaret Waisman, feels that skin care truly does start from within.

Skin care is really simple. Your skin is an organ and it breathes. For this to happen, the epidermis needs to be clean and exfoliated. That way the wastes can be eliminated and your natural oils can shine through. Your skin should “glow”. After it is cleaned, if your skin is not too dry, the outer surface should be toned, and then moisturized if it is not too oily. If you add moisturizer on top of clogged pores, you will clog them more and either break out with pimples. . Heavy products stop your skin from breathing.
Exfoliation can be done in many ways. It can be done with products that contain glycolic acid or fruit peels. Microdermabrasion can be done at a spa. You can have a skin peel at a dermatologist or physician. Did you know that these treatments are really just a way to get rid of the dead skin? They are effective but are costly in time and money. To put natural vitamin C and a natural fruit acid into your skin, you can rub the inside of an orange peel on your face for two minutes, and take 500 mg. of vitamin C a day. Microdermabrason is just a grain scrub made of crystals (salt is a crystal), pieces of loofa or sand rubbed around your face and neck in circular motions. Scrub your own face and save over $1,000! You can buy a nice honey-almond granular scrub (be sure it is alcohol free) for around $20 or make your own. Use finely ground nuts, cornmeal, or oat bran, a little water and honey and make a thick paste. Scrub your face and neck with circular motions for around a minute and one half. Rinse off with warm water, then splash cold water on your face and neck. For a toner, take a half-tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a half tablespoon of witch hazel, a tablespoon of aloe Vera juice, to six ounces of spring water. This will keep. Do not tone skin that is too dry.
Home facial treatments include steaming the skin to open the pores and to release blackheads. You can actually boil tea bags, and stand about six to eight inches above the steam for three minutes. Next, entry rub your skin with one or more of the following ingredients, oatmeal, ground nut meal, poppy seeds, cornmeal, with an equal part of honey. Rinse off with cool water. Then place egg white on your face (including the eyelids) and neck. Leave this on for several minutes. Rinse off with cool water. Finally, add cucumber slices to your eyelids and relax for five minutes. You will experience an

instant face-lift as well as glowing skin! To make this an oxygen facial, just add a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide to your grain scrub.
Mashed avocado is used in South Africa to soften the skin. Papaya is used in Hawaii on sunburnt skin as well as insect bites. Oatmeal and water is placed on skin rashes in Mexico, Germany, and the United States. Tomato juice with a garlic infusion can be used on skin that is prone to breakout. Hemorrhoid cream has been used on puffy eyelids, blemishes, and cellulite, all for on the spot reducing! So can sliced raw potatoes. Any of the following oils are great to use as a moisturizer: sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, flaxseed oil, hazelnut oil, jojoba oil, sunflower seed oil, and vitamin E oil.
It is an exquisite thought to realize that nature can nourish your skin allowing you to put “your best face forward.”

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