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?