"Shadow Art"

[Jediscroller]

I keep seeing this term thrown about though I'm not quite sure what it has to do with scrolling. Maybe it's something that scrollers are interested in? I know there's even a category now at the picnics for it, I'm wondering, do you have to stand there all day with your hands up or do you do your thing and move on? Anyhow, for those that are interested, I found a good site with instructions on creating it:
Moolf - Hand Shadow Arts - How to Create???

Perhaps it refers to this stuff (still don't see what it has to do with scrolling though): Shadow art |

What can I say, I have a slightly sarcastic streak.

[scrollpup]

LOL!! Yea Kevin, I had not even heard of it until the Texas Picnic.My portrait cuts fell in that category, and I was like "What the H!@# is shadow art?" Still not to sure about it! Not gonna ask how you came across that last site.....but I'd say natural.....


Jerry

[Jediscroller]

Geees, I didn't look at the adds, heheheheehehehe.

[JohnB]

Yep, I'd say Natural.

I do like them jeans, wonder if they're wrangler or Levis LOL

I think They refer to Silhouettes as shadow art, but what do I know

[wood-n-things]

I'm with John..Look like silhouettes to me..

[Big_red_S]

Thanks for the link Kevin. It'll be hours of fun with the kids

[Rick-H]

Well I guess the term came up to define another style of cutting. It also made another division in the scrollsaw contest. Comparing the two different styles of cutting was very difficult with the Shadow art usually coming out on the bottom.
We all knew fretwork as the Dome clock, and many other old victorian type cuttings. All that type of cutting was line art that the lines needed to be precisely followed to make the finished project look semetrical and perfect. The wheels on the train had to be round and even width to the rims and spokes of the wheel. These types of patterns are drawn from ideas transfered into line drawings on paper.
Then came the portriat type, now called Shadow Art. These are made by working with a picture and playing with the contrast, or shadows in the picture to make a pattern. These type of patterns are normally made from a picture, they are not drawn from an idea a line at a time to paper. Without the picture to start with they could not be produced.
I guess other terms than shadow art could have been used. Maybe photo negitaive cutting, illusion cutting, blob art, paint spatters, or any other term. But Shadow Art sort of gave a flair to the style that made it sound a little more distinctive and artistic type of name that this type of patterns deserved.

[Magic]

So what was wrong with Silhouettes? After all, he was the guy that started them. Maybe they just couldn't spell it. Magic

[Rick-H]

Originally Posted by Magic

So what was wrong with Silhouettes? After all, he was the guy that started them. Maybe they just couldn't spell it. Magic

That word does not really describe the style.
sil·hou·ette (sl-t) KEY

NOUN:

A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.
An outline that appears dark against a light background. See Synonyms at outline.
TRANSITIVE VERB:
sil·hou·et·ted , sil·hou·et·ting , sil·hou·ettes
To cause to be seen as a silhouette; outline: Figures were silhouetted against the setting sun.

And then from another web site.


"Originally called "Profile Shades" or "Shadows" in England, the French coined the term à la Silhouette as a derogatory reference to Louis XV's former French Minister of Finance, Etienne de Silhouette, who was considered a cheapskate. When de Silhouette left his government position, he reputedly retired to a farmhouse which he decorated with home-made paper cuttings. In the 19th century, the great master cutter Edouart felt that the term "shade" was derogatory to his art and began using the term "silhouettist" to describe himself. The term became popular and carried forward to today."



But anyway I don't remember that word was ever considered when the naming was done by SAW for the contest categories and classes.

[Jediscroller]

So, why not "Fretwork Art?" I'm not even going to bother debating whether fretwork portraits are always taken from a photo or are sometimes hand-drawn. Seeing as we're throwing definitions out, I'll throw out a few for fretwork:

Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary:
noun
work ornamented with frets; decorative carving or openwork, as of interlacing lines

American Heritage Dictionary:
n.
1. Ornamental work consisting of three-dimensional frets; geometric openwork.
2. Such ornamental work represented two dimensionally by chiaroscuro

Collins English Dictionary:
n
1. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) decorative geometrical carving or openwork
2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) any similar pattern of light and dark
3. (Miscellaneous Technologies / Building) ornamental work of three-dimensional frets

You could call it a lot of things, but shadow art it isn't. There are no shadows. I also don't necessarily agree that all portrait type cuttings allow for "missed lines."

Basically, I'm encouraging all scrollers, especially those who do juried craft shows to avoid the use of the term "Shadow Art" as it has nothing at all to do with fretwork portrait type work. I know I don't offer shadow art patterns nor do I do any shadow art work.