The Final Cut

I seem to have spent most of my time this summer (in between cutting silhouettes at a record number of weddings) cooped up in the editing room with Andi, putting finishing touches to the film Silhouette Secrets. 

Silhouette Secrets is a one-hour indie TV documentary in which a modern-day silhouette artist (me) takes a journey back in time to explore the history of his shadowy art, asking the question “Where did it come from?”. On the way he meets the world’s fastest silhouette artist, who challenges him to a duel of scissors!  The journey takes him from a windswept seaside pier - on the north coast of Wales - to an Audi showroom in Houston, Texas, and finishes with an intriguing answer to his question

Charles meets Cindi Harwood Rose,

the world’s fastest silhouettist, and prepares to duel.

The editing process culminated in a private screening of the still-unfinished film in my studio, to a select audience of artist friends. This turned out to be an important final stage. They gave us some fairly direct feedback, which we took on board, and which resulted (I think) in a much better film.

I am happy to report that the film is now finished and ready to show. 

People keep asking “When can I see it?”

Well, the answer is “As soon as we find a TV channel to show it… ”

The hunt is on for a TV sale. Do you, by any chance, know any TV executives interested in quirky and original arts-type documentaries? If so, an introduction would be much appreciated.

In the meantime we plan to enter the film to a number of film festivals. We’ve already had our first success: Silhouette Secrets has been accepted for screening at the Marbella Film Festival (7 - 11th October) where it’s been entered into the Best Documentary section. Would you like to join us there by any chance? If you know anybody in the area do please forward this email to them. If we are successful there - next stop, Cannes!

Charles gets a lesson in how to use a nineteenth-century
silhouette-making machine, known as a physiognotrace. 

Making a film has been an unexpectedly wonderful experience, and has taken me well outside my comfort zone. I’ve loved every minute of it, from finding myself in front of a camera for the first time, to the long hours spent in the editing suite. As well as the film we’ve made a number of short “Silhouette Snippets” which will be released to the film's Facebook page over the next few weeks. One of these snippets - made from off-cuts of the film - has been turned into a 3-minute promotional video for The Roving Artist and will soon appear on the front page of my new website.

I will let you know how we get on in Marbella. In the meantime I am open to suggestions for private screenings - either on their own or as part of a larger event - perhaps combined with a talk on silhouettes or a silhouette workshop. Please do get in touch if you have an event coming up where this might work.

As usual I will be on The Roving Artist stand at the Square Meal show in Old Billingsgate later this month (23rd & 24th September) so do pop by if you want to talk more about the film, or any other aspect of my work as a silhouette artist.

Arrest of an artist

I hope you had a good Easter break and are enjoying the great weather. This is the newsletter I sent to business contact yesterday, but I thought some friends and family might enjoy it too.

While in America last year, filming for the documentary ‘Silhouette Secrets’, we visited Philadelphia to study a 200-year-old automatic silhouette-making machine. While there we met a friend of mine for a drink one evening, a local silhouette artist called Ted Stuessy. I had corresponded with Ted for some time, and liked the look of his work, but had never actually met him.

While chatting, together with film crew and director in a downtown-Philadelphia bar, I learned to my surprise that his day job is Chief of Police at the local New Jersey Police Department in Philadelphia. This was quite a surprise, and not at all what I expected. Stranger still, I discovered he had taught himself to cut silhouettes by studying the profile ‘mug shots’ routinely taken of arrested suspects. These photographs formed a ready library of subjects for him to practice on during breaks and have enabled him to refine his skill to a high degree. 

This revelation caused the conversation to go in a bizarre direction and - I can’t quite recall why - we soon found ourselves speculating whether or not I would be able to cut a silhouette wearing a pair of handcuffs. Not the traditional cowboy-style cuffs, with a generous amount of chain, but the modern New-Jersey-Police kind which lock the wrists closely together and allow hardly any movement at all. I was convinced I could do this, but nobody else there believed me.

So Andi (the director) jokingly asked Ted if he would be kind enough to have me arrested by NJPD the next day so we could try it out. To all of our great surprise Ted answered “Sure, we could do that, what time is good for you?”

The result is this little 2-minute video, which I think you will enjoy: 

I hope you agree I proved my point!

I’ve really no idea if there’s any future for a silhouette-cutting-while-handcuffed act in the world of corporate entertainment, but then again you never really know. Stranger things have happened. 

From Square Meals to Voiceovers

If you can manage to get an hour or two away from the office next week I recommend you make your way down to Old Billingsgate market where the Square Meal ‘Venues and Events’ show is once again taking place. As well as the all-important silhouette artist stand (stand no M7 this year) you can find all manner of creative and useful ideas to help you organise anything from a small dinner party to a 3-day conference for a thousand delegates.

On our stand this year we will be showcasing our new silhouette badge machine. A new variation on an old art: your guests can have their profile cut freehand with scissors and instantly encapsulated in a badge. The badge can include details of your event if you wish. The machine is versatile and can turn our silhouettes not just into badges but fridge magnets and mirrors as well. The badges may be fun at many occasions, although we see them primarily working at conferences and other promotional events

A line up of silhouette badges cut from life. Can you spot which is me?

These will include the Venues and Events #hash tag at the event next week.

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed by since we last exhibited at Square Meal. This time last year we had just launched the first of two crowd-funding campaigns to raise funds for my film ‘Silhouette Secrets’. Since then we managed to put together a budget (albeit a meagre one), arrange a filming schedule and have travelled all over the UK and America shooting over 50 hours of footage - enough to make a full-length feature film should we be so inclined! We are now midway though the seemingly endless task of sifting the footage, deciding what should stay and what must go, then stitching it all together with a voice-over narrative.

Our travels began in London in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, took us to the Regency Town House in Brighton and then on to a freezing cold dawn on Llandudno Pier, tracking down the lives of past silhouettists. We have shot footage in cars, on trains, in public streets and parks, even from a motorcycle sidecar! In America we went to new York, Boston, Philadelphia and - most notably - Houston, where I challenged the world record for speed-cutting silhouettes.

This week I’ll be back at Square Meal, together with my colleague Michael Herbert, offering our silhouettes to event organisers from all over the country. You’ll find us on the bridge, hope to see you there!

Secrets of speed cutting

The thing which most struck me after the "Off With Your Head!" contest was just how entertaining it had all been. With Cindi Rose and I cutting back-to-back, silhouettes began filling the room within minutes. Everybody went away with at least one portrait and most got two. Wherever I looked there were people laughing, joking and comparing profiles. I had approached the event with a certain dread, the numbers seemed so impossibly high. When clients ask how many silhouettes I can cut in one hour my usual answer is “about 30”, yet after cutting nearly 150 my main feeling was that I wanted another go! That got me wondering: could there be an application for this in the corporate events market?

The secret to such huge numbers is not simply in the cutting, but in the way the event is organised. Working as a mix-and-mingle entertainer most of my time is not spent creating silhouettes at all: for every minute spent cutting I may spend another two talking to guests, mounting silhouettes on card, posing for photographs and finding the next volunteer. This is not laziness on my part but an inevitable and integral part of the process. In Houston I stood at a table with a queue of willing subjects, a trained assistant whom I knew could keep up with me and an MC telling people to get in line. The result was that for every minute spent cutting I probably waited just 2 or 3 seconds for people to change places. 

Could such an arrangement work at a conference reception here in the UK? Even without trying to set any world records I now realise that two artists placed in the middle of a room, cutting 30-second one-line silhouettes, with a team of assistants to help in crowd control and mounting, can cut their way through 200-250 guests in a single hour - all done before the bell tolls for dinner! If this is something which might work at an event you are organising please do get in touch, it would be great to chat and talk through what's involved. It’s a radically different way to approach the art, yet who knows: we might even bring an unofficial world record to your next event…

Does 'One' in Houston mean 'Go'?

Filming for ‘Silhouette Secrets’ is now almost complete. Andi and I returned from a crowd-funded shoot in the USA just over a month ago. The main item on our agenda was a trip to Houston to meet the world’s fastest silhouette artist: Cindi Harwood Rose. Cindi has held this record for nearly 30 years, having cut 144 silhouettes in one hour at an event in the 1980’s, and the film will end with me going to Houston to challenge it. Cindi kindly arranged for a charity speed-cutting contest to take place in a local Audi showroom, rather alarmingly called “Off With Your Head!".

The rules of the contest were fairly simple. We each had a table to work at and one assistant to help us mount the silhouettes and hand them out. My daughter Taz (herself a promising silhouettist) flew with us to Houston to act as my assistant. Guests at the event collected pink and blue tickets and were asked to drop blue tickets into a bowl on my table and pink ones into a bowl on Cindi’s; at the end of the evening the tickets would be counted to determine the outcome.

There were a number of craft stalls (including a paper cutter and an origami artist), a silhouette historian, a food buffet and a bar at the event. Some 200 guests and a contingent of local press arrived. On my table I had a pile of printed cards - bearing the logo of the local cancer charity for whom the event was being staged - and my usual squares of black and white paper, each stamped with a number to help me tell how fast I was cutting.

Cindi and I took our positions and a large queue immediately formed at both tables. The contest got off to a shaky start for me, as the MC announced:

“The competition is about to start: Three - Two - ONE!”

which caused me to hesitate for a vital few seconds, slightly confused. Should I start cutting? Does ‘One’ in Houston mean ’Go’?

Once over this unpromising start I soon warmed to the task in hand and began to enjoy myself. It was a luxury to be assisted by Taz and to have an MC directing the traffic. I even found time to laugh and joke with a few of the guests - who all did exactly as they had been told: standing on the ‘X’ and looking straight ahead.

Twenty minutes - and some 50 silhouettes - later the pressure began to tell and I found it harder to keep up the relentless pace. My mouth became dry and the scissors began to feel heavy as lead. Mark, the cameraman, asked me to speak a few words about how I was feeling but my reply was sadly incoherent. Taz helped by feeding me mouthfuls of water as I cut, after a while the feeling passed and I entered a kind of ‘second wind’.

The final twenty minutes were a real joy. I found myself cutting faster than I ever have before, my hands began to feel better and the numbers indicated I was on track to achieve my target. To say the silhouettes were flying off the scissors is perhaps an exaggeration but as I passed the one-hundred mark that is really how I felt.

A selection of 24-second speed-cut silhouettes made during the final twenty minutes of "Off With Your Head!"

The end of the contest brought a brief period of excitement as my silhouette numbers indicated I might actually have broken the record! Rather embarrassingly I even sent out an ill-advised tweet or two to this effect, which had to be hurriedly retracted some time later when the official ticket count became available. Andi, with typical humour, posted a Facebook update asking “Will we get out of Texas alive?”.

The official result was slightly disappointing as it seems neither Cindi or I equalled her existing record, although we both came very close: the final score was 141 to Cindi and 139 to me, leaving Cindi's 30-year-old record untouched. Although I didn’t beat the record I came to understand how it is possible to cut such huge numbers, and how I might go about beating this record in future. I had to remind myself that the result was less important than filming the event, which was a huge success and will make an interesting sequence in ’Silhouette Secrets’.

Here are some photos of the event:

Being interviewed by Houston Chinese TV before the start

Two guests holding silhouettes by both Cindi and I (mine are the smaller)

Cindi silhouetting a less-than-cooperative child

Speaking after the event

Silhouette Secrets Twitter day.

As our Indiegogo campaign enters it’s final week I’m posting the promised update... and a request for a tweet!

Tomorrow will be Silhouette Secrets' Twitter day. Crowd-funded projects gain more visibility the more people mention them online within a certain timeframe. Therefore I’ve been writing to everybody I know and asking them to send a tweet at lunchtime, sometime around 1pm UK time, on Thursday 20th February. I’m told the more noise we can make in a short space of time the better our campaign will perform!

If you can’t manage tweets, a mention on Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other networking platform will have the same effect. The important thing is that it should be tomorrow, and that it should contain the following link:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/583568/emal/5309929

You can write whatever you like in your tweet. Comments such as:

“No chance - this guy simply doesn’t know when to give up”

are just as effective as:

"Take a look at the skill of this man with the magical scissors"

or

"Who would have thought that shadows actually have a history?”

My own favourites are:

“Let’s get this shady silhouette character out of the shadows”

Or (conversely):

“We’re doing our best to keep him in the shadows where he belongs”

“Whoever heard of a digital silhouette?”

Be creative! I’ll be looking out for your tweets and have a few silhouette gift vouchers to send to authors of the most imaginative comments. And if you really get the bug there’s no reason to limit yourself to just one tweet - feel free to tweet away!

The outcome is important (for me at any rate) filming is now underway, a challenge has been laid and the date is set: I am to challenge the world silhouette speed-cutting record, in Houston, Texas, on 25th March 2014 - just over a month away. Your tweets will help me get there!

Silhouette Secrets: Free silhouettes and other silly ideas

I begin this year in a state of high excitement as we have finally started filming “Silhouette Secrets”.  This is my first foray into the world of TV and film making (apart from occasional TV appearances: Blue Peter, Tales of Tools, etc) and I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience. The film is a 50-minute ‘indie’ TV documentary, on the art and history of silhouette portraits, being produced by Andi Reiss and myself on something of a shoe-string budget.

So far we have hosted a christmas dinner in a barn, filmed in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, and are about to take a train journey to Llandudno to have my silhouette cut on the pier! The idea is to look at the work of successive generations of silhouettists, the times in which they worked and some of the Heath-Robinson-like machines they used. We hope to do this in a quirky and entertaining manner, filling the film with unexpected shadows and silhouettes. We are looking for help with various aspects of the film, hence this email.

Our Indiegogo Campaign:

The film does have a basic budget, however we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to include a trip to America - where silhouettes have a wider following than they do in the UK. We have therefore just launched a last-minute one-month crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo, and are now looking for backers. There are generous ‘perks’ on offer from silhouette postcards and digital copies of the film to tickets for the opening night (we’ll roll out the red carpet for you - or perhaps it will be a black one?) The campaign will run until and end of February, just in time for us to buy some tickets and head across the pond later in March.

The “speed cutting” silhouette world record:

One of the reasons we really do need to get to America is to meet my friend Cindi Rose. Cindi is a silhouette artist based in Texas and current holder of the unofficial silhouettist’s speed-cutting record, which (unbelievably) stands at 144 silhouettes cut in just one hour!  Cindi has offered to host a charity fund-raising event in Houston at which I will have the opportunity to challenge this record. I have no idea if I can actually do this! Whether or not I succeed the event will be a lot of fun and will provide a suitable finale (what Andi calls a moment of jeopardy) at the end of the film.

Speed cutting: 50 rather rough silhouettes cut in 20 mins & 21 secs as a rehearal for the finale of Silhouette Secrets

Free Silhouettes and other silly ideas:

Are you planning an event in February? We are looking for a variety of suitable events to feature in the film and illustrate silhouette cutting in action. To this end I am happy to offer my services FOC at an event or two, provided I can bring a small camera crew with me. They might just film me doing what I do, or we might perhaps use the event as a live rehearsal for the world-record attempt! If you are planning an event in the near future (or suddenly feel like throwing an impromptu party to take advantage of this offer) please do get in touch so we can discuss. Suitable events can be anything from a private dinner party to a large corporate event.

If you are planning an event, but would rather not have a camera crew present, then of course I remain available to attend at my usual terms ;-)

Please help us by posting links to the Indiegogo campaign on your favourite social media. You can follow our progress over the next few months on our Silhouette Secrets Facebook page: www.facebook.com/silhouettesecrets

Silhouette Secrets and the chance of a Square Meal

When I first discovered silhouettes they seemed like a tiny corner in the world of art, yet today I am amazed by the journey they have led me.  They took an unknown artist from a stall in Covent Garden and introduced him to the world of corporate entertainment.  After putting him through a royal event or two they led him to become an author - publishing "Mastering Silhouettes" in 2012. One day the author was amazed to hear himself introduced as an art historian, now they seem about to turn him into filmmaker and TV presenter as well….

Silhouette Secrets is a short film documentary I'm making, in collaboration with my colleague Andi Reiss.  I've been thinking about this project for number of years: we'll be looking back at some of the secrets and techniques used by silhouettists of the past and giving them a contemporary twist by trying them out on a modern audience. It will be filmed in a quirky and entertaining manner, full of unexpected visual references to the shadows and silhouettes we see around us everyday

When thinking about how to fund such a project Andi & I decided to see if we could crowd-fund it using Kickstarter. I'm sure you've heard about this in the media recently: the basic principle is to get major artistic projects off the ground using social media to find hundreds of backers, each prepared to contribute modest amounts in return for a variety of artistic rewards. Early this morning we launched a month-long Kickstarter campaign. We have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks. writing and planning rewards, and have created what I hope is a professional-looking presentation. You can see a taster video (which includes some shots of me in action) on our Kickstarter campaign page.

Do let me know know what you think, or if you have any suggestions to improve it.  Perhaps you will even be tempted by one of the rewards I am offering and become a backer ;-)

In the middle of all this excitement, of course, the business of the silhouettist must go on. With this in mind I am exhibiting next week at the Square Meal Venues & Events Live show in Old Billingsgate. It would be great to see you if you are planning to go - you'll find me cutting silhouettes on Pod # M41.  Whether your interest is in art, corporate events or filmmaking I'm sure we can find plenty to talk about! As the name implies it may even be possible to find lunch at the show.

Some speed-cut silhouettes & a BBC write-up

Whenever I feel I've exhausted all the artistic avenues silhouette cutting has to offer, some new challenge always opens itself up to me.  A week or so ago I was asked to cut a single silhouette, the challenge being that the silhouette was to be cut on the radio - during 'Tony Blackburn's Weekend Warmup' on BBC Radio Berkshire.  The idea was to cut the silhouette while the presenter interviewed me at the same time, trying to create a picture in the listener's mind as to what was going on.  In the end the silhouette turned out not one of my best, but - I ask myself - did it really matter?  The interview led to a write-up about my work on the BBC website which you can read here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-23095541

A completely different challenge was set recently by a client in Germany who required each of 250 delegates to receive a silhouette, cut from their own corporate-blue paper, during a conference dinner.  My initial proposal - based on tried-and-tested advice to allow two minutes per person - was that they would need to book four artists.  The reply came back that they had the budget to book two, Mike and myself, on the understanding that everybody would still receive a silhouette…

What to do? Arguably the sensible option would have been to turn the booking down on the grounds that this simply wasn't possible, however Mike & I instead decided to re-visit our ideas on 'speed cutting' to see if we could double our output of silhouettes.

Speed cutting has a long tradition amongst silhouette artists, with the '60-second sitting' a prominent feature of silhouettists' advertising ever since the 1830's.  The artists of the 1920's were fond of holding competitions to see who could cut a recognisable profile in the fastest possible time. Output, however, is not just about speed; our standard two-minute interval is based on 50-90 seconds to cut the silhouette + another 60 seconds or so 'pause' between each one.  This pause is not a break, but the time needed to mount the silhouette on card, hold it up for all to see, deal with a number of comments & general 'chat-chat', and finally to find & pose the next subject.  Herein lay the problem, whilst we could conceivably cut a bit faster, how could we reduce this 'pause' to the level needed to actually produce one silhouette every minute?

In the end the client provided part of the solution: the silhouettes were to be mounted directly into the delegates' conference packs under the heading 'Author's Profile' (related to the theme of the conference) meaning we could give out unmounted silhouettes for delegates to stick in themselves.  The client also agreed to announce our presence in advance, so everyone knew we were working against the clock, which made it easier to quickly find each subject.  The 'pause' was thus reduced to 20 seconds or so, leaving us just 40 seconds to cut the silhouette.  This we achieved by dispensing with superfluous detail and concentrating on a single-line cutting technique, with none of the usual extra cuts to show ties, glasses and curls of hair.

Some of the 40-second, single-line silhouettes cut at a recent conference in Heidenheim, Germany

At the event Mike and I each broke our own speed records, and between us cut just over 220 profiles in two hours flat.  Half the delegates consisted of balding middle-aged men, which helped considerably - nice simple shapes! After finishing the remaining few delegates at a more leisurely pace we even had time to sit down and enjoy a meal before the event finished.  The lesson I learned is that one shouldn't be too prescriptive about the number of silhouettes one artist can actually cut; with adequate preparation - and some co-operation from the client - this time is far more elastic than I used to think.

Cutting Silhouettes from Japan to England

I am currently away on a short break in Osaka, Japan - my son is spending a year at university here - but thought I should drop you line to let you know about a couple of showcase events I'll be taking part in after my return to the UK next week.

On March 17th I will be attending the wedding fayre at Caswell House in Oxfordshire, one of my favourite undiscovered wedding venues, and the following week I will showing my work at Confex.  I have attached an invitation for Confex (which takes place at the Excel Centre in London) where I'll be sharing a stand with my magician colleague Jon Allen. It would be great to see you at either event if you felt like popping in.

In both Japan and the UK I often meet people who are surprised by the variety of portrait silhouettes which can be cut.  Even those who are familiar with the art - a great many are not - tend to assume that all silhouettes are of the simple head-and-shoulder 'cameo' style; they are quite surprised when I suddenly produce a full-length, double, or caricature-style portrait.  To help in changing this perception I have created a slide show of cuttings made at events over the last year or so, and have made it available as a video on YouTube:

The video lasts just over 6 minutes, I hope you enjoy it!  I would be grateful for an feedback you may have - the plan is to add it to the front page on my website if it seems to work OK.  

Silhouette workshops and other cutting-edge ideas

With 2013 now well under way I notice I've been getting a number of enquiries about dinner parties, or small meetings, for 20 people or less. One particular event organiser, who called after a client had asked her about silhouettes, was understandably skeptical:

"They're only expecting 12 guests" she said

"I know how fast you are, you'll only be there for for 15 minutes or so, won't you?"

Laughing, I explained that although I can cut a silhouette in just 60 seconds I've never found it obligatory to do so! Lately I've started to really appreciate these smaller events at which I can slow down a bit (taking as long as three or four minutes per cutting) as well as having the chance to talk more and really get to know the people present.

Another client, calling about a conference with just 10 delegates, asked me if I ever did workshops; at that, the penny dropped…

The proposal I'm about to put forward for that event so intrigues me that I thought it worth sharing:

A proposal for post-meeting dinner entertainment

Shortly after arriving for drinks, after a long and productive meeting, the delegates are met by artist who introduces them to the eighteenth-century craft of silhouette cutting. Asking for a volunteer to model he cuts a portrait from paper, freehand with scissors, talking the audience through the two-minute process as he does so. Afterwards the delegates are invited to each find a partner, while scissors and paper are distributed among them; they then have two minutes to cut their partner's silhouette, before changing places so their partner can have a go at cutting a silhouette of them.  After some minutes each is holding a pair of silhouettes (although sadly few are great works of art) which are then mounted onto card and passed around the room to the sound of general hilarity.  The whole process takes about 15 minutes.

Later on, after the delegates are seated for dinner, the artist circulates the room cutting portraits for all to take home as a souvenir of the day. The portraits are quite detailed, with some caught holding glasses or gesticulating with a fork, while others are gently caricatured.  A few - for those brave enough to stand and pose - are cut in full length.

Some delegate silhouettes cut during dinner after the workshop

What do you think?  Of course this is only a sketch for one event, on another occasion it could also work if I cut their silhouettes first and run the workshop afterwards, but the general idea seems to have possibilities.  Until recently I had assumed such workshops were limited to team-building events and art societies, while now I'm wondering if they have a wider application?

Dai Vernon and the double-dip recession

A quick update to let you know we've taken a last-minute stand at the Square Meal "Venues & Events" exhibition at Old Billingsgate this week.  It seems a good replacement for our previous annual stand at the RSVP show, which sadly seems to have allowed itself to fall victim to the recession this year.  "Venues and Events" is open this Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30am - 5.30pm; for more information please visit the show website at:
www.venuesandevents.co.uk

Michael and I will both be on the stand, so it will be good opportunity to meet up and discuss how silhouette cutting might work at whatever event you may be planning this year.

All this talk of Double-dip Recession we are hearing in the media reminds me of the famous American magician / silhouettist Dai Vernon.  Dai was an artist who invented many of today's best-known magic tricks, but who actually supported himself and his family throughout the 1920's and 30's as a street silhouettist.  During the long years of the Great Depression he would set up a stall - in whatever city he happened to be working at the time - under a banner saying "No Depression Here".  Legend has it that he invariably had a long queue of customers!

Dai Vernon working in Chicago during the 1930's

So, if you are able to visit Venues and Events this week, do make to time to come and get your silhouette cut out under the "NO RECESSION HERE" sign!

New websites and Skype silhouettes

I'm not sure how it all went for you, but for me the Olympics seems to have been a quiet time. Aside from the usual August weddings I was booked for just one post-Olympic drinks reception, by Coca-Cola.  The Olympic machine seems otherwise not to have noticed the possibilities of silhouette cutting!  On the bright side, it gave me the opportunity to watch a little of the action myself (my work usually keeps me well away from the TV) and also to embark on the long-planned but never-quite-time-to-actually-do rewrite of my website.

After more hours work than can possibly be healthy that rewrite is now done, so if you have a moment do take a look in the usual place:

www.roving-artist.com

I've liberally sprinkled it with references to my new book 'Mastering Silhouettes' as well as adding a lot of new silhouettes and photographs to reflect the style of cuttings I'm making these days. I would appreciate any comments and feedback you may have, and am keeping fingers X-ed that you won't find too many typos...

The photograph is one of the illustrations in the book which shows what Michael calls my "full stop". This is the moment - after a period of furious cutting - when I suddenly hold up a finished silhouette for all to see.  I've always liked this photo, so have added it to the front page of the website.

You will also find on the website references to 'Skype silhouettes'.  Over the years there has always been a steady trickle of clients who send me photographs to work from.  While this generally works OK, as testified by the kind of feedback I receive, I've always felt a bit insecure about working from photographs. Like many portrait artists I prefer working from life, as I find it easier to see what people really look like and to judge if I'm creating a good likeness.  Quite recently I discovered that a sitting over Skype - while not exactly live - does give me a much better sense of 'person' than working from a photograph, so I can be much more confident in my cutting.  Also the client gets to see my "full stop" at the end, leading to some very instant feedback!  At the end of the session, when everybody is happy, I simply pop the silhouettes in an envelope and send by post.

If you know anybody who may have seen me in action at an event, and perhaps left wishing their family could have been there to get a silhouette, then this might be something that would interest them.  A Skype session is far cheaper than booking me for an event or home visit!  

Mays Barn Open Studio weekend

The month of May, as well as being busy season for silhouette cutting at weddings and other events, is also "open studios" season here in Reading. As usual Mays Barn is open for two weekends in May, giving me an opportunity to show a set of the new hollow-cut life studies which I've been working on over the last year or so, as well as an excuse to friends and artists over for a drink this Friday.  Do get in touch if you need an invitation!

The Orange Cushion - pencil and watercolour on scissor-cut paper

The inspiration for these half-drawings - half-silhouettes - came out of the research I did for my recently-published book 'Mastering Silhouettes'.  They are based on a technique of 'hollow-cutting' with scissors, last used in early nineteenth-century America.  My idea was to take this technique into the life room and experiment with a much more contemporary style of work.  The work is still quite experimental, but I've taken a selection of them and mounted them in a set of double-glazed frames, allowing whatever wall they are hung on to show through the 'hole'.   

There are a number of guest artists and craftspeople from the Caversham Art Trail joining me in the barn this year: Lousie Spiers , Sophie Waite, Peter Quarmby and Brenda Graham (see www.cavershamartstrail.co.uk ). We opened last weekend to bright sunshine and a record number of visitors, and are hoping this weekend will be the same.

One of the spreads from my new book 'Mastering Silhouettes'

As well as the range of art, copies of my book also be on sale, with me there to sign them.  If you don't already have a copy, this will be a good opportunity to remedy the situation.

If you can't make it this Friday do pop in over the weekend.  I'm working at a couple of events on Saturday - one at least of which sounds rather alarmingly grand - but I'll be around all day on Sunday to sign books and indulge in conversations about art.  It would be great to see you if you can make it, but if not I'm sure well meet at some future event.

The Book is Launched!

My new book "Mastering Silhouettes" was finally launched last month with a small party at the London Sketch Club.  We were fortunate enough to be sponsored by Hendricks Gin - who supplied the drink - so it was a small but very tasty party.  Thank you Hendricks!

The London Sketch Club provided the ideal venue, with its frieze of life-size silhouettes of past members stretching back to Victorian days. It was a real treat for those who attended.  My publishers says enough of the 'right kind' of people attended to make it a success.  It looks like the book will be available in the souvenir shop at the National Portrait Gallery, and there are vague rumours of a French translation.

If you would like you own copy you can order a signed copy direct from me at the cover price of £16.95 + p&p.  I've attached an order form below.  Otherwise those of you with an eye for economy might prefer to pick one up on Amazon at their usual discount rate.

Breakfast Marmalade - iPhone drawing, 2012

Now that the book is well and truly christened and out of my hands I finally have some time to return to the studio and do some painting.  In this regard my biggest inspiration do far this year has been the (very crowded) David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy.  Did you see it yet?  Isn't it amazing?  Inspired by his example I set about teaching myself to draw on my iPhone (I haven't yet managed to graduate to an iPad) starting with fairly simple subjects such as the pot of marmalade shown.  Drawing on an iPhone naturally leads to sharing the work with others, so before long I found myself 'tweeting' the resulting images on a daily basis.  This has become a kind of project for me: to supply a 'picture-a-day' to my followers on Twitter.  So far most are iPhone drawings, but there are also a number of life studies and (of course) cut-out silhouettes.  If you would like to be one of them you can see the work so far and add your name to the list @roving_artist.

Bernadatte from the Back - pencil on scissor-cut paper, 2011

Apart from iPhone drawings I've been experimenting with hollow-cut life studies.  I call these my "chameleon" drawings, since they change completely depending on the kind of wall one hangs them on.  I use the facility with scissors I have built up (after so many years cutting silhouettes) to cut away the figure from inside the paper.  I then draw-in extra details of hair and drapery with a fine pencil.  The drawings are framed between two sheets of glass so that the wall is visible through the 'hole' and becomes part of the image.  The rounded effect on the girl's shoulders is created by the shadow of the paper on the wall.  For me this is an exciting new direction so I have assembled a collection of these images and plan to start exhibiting them this year.

The first opportunity to see these will be at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair, during the last weekend of April, at which I have taken a stand. There is a private view on the evening of Friday 27th April - for which I have a number of tickets - so if you feel you might like to come to this just send an e-mail and I'll pop one in the post for you.

A new pair of scissors

One of the things people often ask when they see me cutting is

"How many pairs of scissors do you get through?"

I get the impression they are expecting to hear I use at least six pairs a night, as they are usually quite surprised when I explain that I've been using the same pair of scissors for the last ten years!  The truth is that I get very attached to scissors; they seem to take on a personality of their own and almost feel like an extension of my own hand.  Although I do always carry a spare pair with me, I almost never use them.

Ten-year old scissors in action

Ten years ago I purchased two identical steel scissors from a surgical supply store in Birmingham.  Seven years later (as does occasionally happen) one of them went a.w.o.l., leaving me with one.  Contacting the suppliers I was told they no longer make that kind of scissor.  A few weeks ago the second pair also disappeared, which left me feeling really bereft.  Alas, the scissors which have twice cut portraits of the Queen, and created all the illustrations in my new book, are no more!  I found myself going through a quite genuine period of grief.

Still, at least I managed to finish the book.  "Mastering Silhouettes" is coming out in February (or January for those living in the US) and is available now for advance ordering on Amazon.

I currently have just a single advance copy, but I will be getting my own private stash, so if you would rather order a signed copy direct from me you will be able to do so in the new year.  After such an unbelievable amount of work I'm really pleased with the finished article and look forward to sharing it with you.

The Book cover

If you are one of those who took part in my "Free silhouettes and other silhie ideas" scheme earlier in the year, please rest assured I haven't forgotten you.  Look out for an envelope coming your way before xmas…

But back to the scissors.  After experimenting with a number of different blades I have plumbed for a pair of rather smart tungsten scissors with a serrated blade. Rather counter-intuitively the serrated blade grips the paper - acting a bit like a third hand - yet still produces a clean crisp line.  At present I still feel a bit like I'm learning all over again, but first impressions are good.

Scarily smart new scissors!

Without wishing to get too technical (there's more than enough of that in the book) I'm experiencing a slight increase in speed during the 'first cut' (the outline) and a slight decrease when performing 'point work' (the small holes I like to cut - for instance in the hair - which have become a kind of trademark style for me).  Right now I'm greatly looking forward to the busy Christmas season, which seems to start in earnest this week, so that I can get a chance to really see what these new scissors can do!

A Windemere Wedding

A couple of weeks ago I was cutting silhouettes at a wedding in Windermere.  It was cold, wet and windy, as you would expect from the Lake District in late summer, but the hotel in use for the reception had a couple of interesting early-Victorian full-length silhouettes on the wall.  One of the teenage guests asked me about them as I did her own silhouette, so I told her they were first cut from paper and then embellished with gold paint, and to judge by the look of them they probably dated from about the 1840's.  Without a moment's hesitation she replied:

"Oh, did you do them then?"

I've never felt so old!

My interest in historical silhouettes has been given a great boost this year while researching projects for my book 'Mastering Silhouettes'.  This book (which will be published early next year) features a series of D-I-Y silhouettes projects, each of which is based on the work of a historical silhouettist.  This is one reason I was able to sound so knowledgeable about the Windermere silhouettes. One of the historical techniques which has most attracted me is known as 'hollow cutting'.  In this technique the silhouette is defined by the 'negative' empty space inside a piece of white paper, rather than a 'positive' silhouette cut from black.

While playing around with this concept I realised it might help me solve the problem of the 'half silhouette'. Half silhouettes are a cutting of just the face, leaving out the back of the head. The attraction is that they can be made really fast, in well under a minute per person. I've made a number of experiments with them over the years, but they have always seemed rather problematic. Hollow cutting seems to negate the problems, and seems both a fun and intuitive way of working.  So I can now announce that these half silhouettes are available to book for events, alongside my more traditional silhouettes.  Here is a sequence to show how I make them, this couple took just over 60 seconds to cut out and present.

  

I envisage half silhouettes as being suitable for the kind of event where there might be 120-150 guests and everybody needs to get a souvenir.  I recently cut over 200 of these in one afternoon at an office party to celebrate the launch of the good ship 'Silhouette' (yes, it seems I've even had a ship named after me now!)

In a different vein altogether, I was reliantly invited to be an Associate of the Society of Graphic Fine Arts (which means I get to put 'ASGFA' after my name, should I feel the need).  I am exhibiting two 'hollow cut' life studies at their annual exhibition this year, so if you are in London at all during the first two weeks in October you might like to pop in and see it.  Information below.