Making Doctor Who Minimalist Shadow Art

As part of my 10 Things to Do with a Blank Canvas series (part 1 and part 2), I created this fantastic Doctor Who shadow art.  And when I say I created it, what I mean is that I came up with this really cool idea and then I asked The Mr. to do it because I couldn’t draw a Dalek.  Actually what I mean is he took over the project when he saw my attempts to draw a bow tie.  And he is an artist so I let him.  BUT, I am pretty sure that you could find templates online, at the craft store, or make them in a program like Publisher.

Our goal was to create minimalist shadow art that represented Doctor Who.  We chose the Tardis, Angel Wings, a Bow Tie and a Dalek as our 4 images.

Supplies:

4 square canvases, our are 4 by 4 inches
Spray paint; blue & white
Painters tape
Exacto knife (don’t poke your eye out)
Pencil 
A plastic cutting mat

What to Do:

Spray paint your canvases Tardis blue.  Do this outside because there are fumes.  And you don’t want paint on the inside of your house.  We use an old cardboard box to spray paint on.  Let it dry completely.

While your canvases are drying, layer strips of painters tape onto your cutting mat to create a stand in canvas that is the size of your actual canvas.  You will be using this to make your shadow templates.  You need four of them.  You want to make sure the tape overlays your canvas so that it protects the edges of your canvas.

Sketch your design on the tape using your pencil.  You want it to be as simple as possible.

You will then use your exacto knife to cut out the pieces and make your stencil.  To make the Dalek one you actually have to put the little circles onto the canvas as well as the big overall stencil.

Remove the outside pieces and place them on your now dried canvas.  The open parts will be the design which you will spray white. Let it dry completely before you remove the tape so you don’t smudge things.  Smudging things is bad.

It’s actually pretty easy and straight forward.  It only got complicated because we created our own stencils.  You can get Angel Wings stencils at the craft store; these are usually used for scrapbooking or painting.  You could find images online, download them and print them off to make your stencils as well.  We found it easier to create our own so that we could have the images that we wanted.

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Doctor Who Week is a joint venture between  Maria’s Melange and Teen Librarian Toolbox. We have a full week of fun posts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Filed under: Blank Canvas, Canvas, Crafts, Doctor Who