Our Silhouette Mural is Finished!

A finished silhouette mural of children engaging in various activities, with colorful words and graphics surrounding them on a white wall.
A finished mural features silhouettes of people painted on a wall, art supplies scattered around, a painting of an eagle, and a dog at the bottom.

Our silhouette mural is finished!  It went pretty quickly once we got started.   Each of the figures represents different subject areas at school.  Students in grades 4-6 did most of the painting and I had some students in 7-8 grade do touch-ups, edging and fine details.

We started by brainstorming words and images to represent each of the different subjects at our school. We used an overhead projector to make a shadow on a wall and trace the outlines of the students. The way it was set up, we had to trace on to paper, and then cut out that paper and trace on to the wall. We did it that way because the hallway wasn’t wide enough to get the right shadow size. Words related to each subject matter were stenciled around the outlines of the silhouettes.

A couple of years later, we added some chicks and a nest to our mural!

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9 Comments

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  1. Love the concept! Several years ago I designed and coordinated the painting of murals by teachers, most of which had little or no art experience. It was a bonding time and when the children arrived they were spellbound! Your video brought back great memories.

  2. When I first looked at your silhouette mural, I thought they were silhouettes cut out of paper and taped to the wall…which I thought was already a fun project. But once I went to your posting with slide show, I realized what a great, in depth project it was! Thank you for sharing.

    • I had students in grades 2-8 work on it over the course of a few weeks. The younger kids helped with tracing the silhouettes, cutting out the pieces and retracing them on to the wall. They also helped paint in big areas. The older kids worked on refining the edges and small details! Thanks!