Shadow painting is a really simple process to create beautiful art for your home. For this tutorial, I used leaves and wildflowers (maybe weeds), a small branch from a shrub, and a small branch from a rose bush all from my yard.
I am so happy with the results of this project!
Table of Contents
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What You Need To Get Started
Here’s what you need to make your own shadow painting:
- Paper – I used mixed media paper for the square ones and watercolor paper for the rectangle ones.
- Pencil – to trace the shadow
- A light source – I used the flashlight from my iPhone on a tripod. Later in the post, I’ll give you a couple of other ideas if you don’t have a tripod.
- Paint – Any paint that you want. Artist acrylic, craft paint, or house paint. If you’re going to use a specific color, a small sample size of paint from Home Depot is about $6.00.
Step By Step
Let’s get started
- Set up your workspace for this project on a flat surface that you can lay your paper to sketch
- Make sure that you have room for a vase to hold your plant as well as room to place your light source.
- Place your stem into the vase or attach it to something else to hold it in the position that you want it.
- With your light on, move the stems around and choose the shadow that looks best to you.
- Trace around the shadow shapes. It’s best to trace the shapes without thinking of them as leaves or stems. Simply follow the lines as shapes.
- Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to paint.
- Take your time when you’re painting because if it’s a detailed sketch it’s easy to get a little confused about which areas to paint. I suggest that you take a picture of the shadow on the paper to look back at for a reference if you need it.
Plants That Were Used
The pictures below are the plants that I used. You don’t have to start with beautiful plants to make a beautiful painting! The last picture is of a branch from a rose bush whose roses had already died and fallen off. I liked all of the star shaped points.
Setting Up The Light Source
This is the way I set up my lighting. Try moving it around to see what works best for you. Here are a couple of other ways to try if you don’t have a tripod.
You can take a sketchpad outside and use the sun to make shadows.
An iPhone, a cup and a stack of books will work too. I’m sure there are many other ways to do this with a little imagination.
Examples
Here are four steps from shadow to sketch to painting to framed art.
Here’s another example of the sketch, painting, and framed art.
In the first example, I painted the background black, and in the second example, the plants are painted black.
Shadow painting plants is such a fun project! Are you up for the challenge?