Silhouette Study 3 – Making Your Family Tree
This week (Feb 27 to March 3) is dedicated to silhouettes and the many ways to enjoy this powerful art form.
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| An Example of a Family Tree Silhouette |
Often enough, we don’t write down the stories that our parents tell us about our grandparents and great-grandparents and as life would have it, our parents soon pass away and these crucial details that connect us to our past and to who we are- are lost forever.
Let us begin by making a simple family tree just of you, your siblings, parents and grandparents. If you feel ambitious, keep the tree growing and add more names and birth dates. The great thing about a silhouette family tree is that we can see the resemblance of the profiles of members of the family from one generation to another. It might be a prominent chin or nose. The other benefit is that in case you cannot find a photo of your great-grandparents or those further away from the nuclear family, then you can just find a silhouette on the internet that can best represent that person. For example, you are told your great-grandfather Elmer always wore that derby hat..there you go- find a silhouette profile of a man wearing a derby hat.
Here are the steps to making this family tree silhouette:
- Using the simple family tree silhouette below, decide how far you want to extend the tree- to your grandparents or great-grandparents? Add more circles and extend branches if necessary.
- Prepare the individual silhouette profiles.(Read my Monday post:Silhouette Study I- to learn how to do this).
- Drag individual silhouette profiles one at a time. Fit to designated circle and add name (you can also add birthdate)
- You may also add family pets, either they get their own circle or they just stand by the tree.
I hope this little family tree project will inspire you to investigate further into your roots and heritage. Perhaps you will start a Family History Book? Ask the oldest members of your family to help recreate and document your shared past.
Here are some interesting quotes on family to inspire you as you make your family tree:
“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.”~Frederick Buechner
Families are like fudge… mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown
“Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.”
To learn more about the history of silhouettes and to see examples, visit American silhouettist Tim Arnold’s website
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| A Simple Family Tree Temaplate by paulina constancia |
DAILY DOSE OF ART 
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