Silhouettes and Shadowgraphs

Playing with shadows can be done with any age girl. While these activities were designed for Juniors and above, they can easily be used by Daisies and Brownies as well.

Silhouettes
These were used extensively in the 1930s by GSUSA to illustrate Girl Scout activities. Make a silhouette of your head and display it, include it in a card, etc.. Equipment: Strong light White and black paper Glue Attach a large piece of white paper to a solid surface. Place the light so it shines on this surface. Stand between the light and wall and trace the outline of the head. Transfer to black paper and add your own touches.

Shadowgraphs
Shadowgraphs are little gures cut out of cardboard, mounted on thin at sticks or strips of heavy cardboard, and worked behind and at against a screen covered with a piece of sheeting or unbleached muslin. To move head, arms, or legs, these parts must be cut separately and attached so that they overlap the body. See drawings. Each part is fastened with a brass paper fastener or bent pin. To the overlapping part a thread is attached in such a way that when the thread is pulled the arm, head, or leg will lift and fall again of its own weight. Plain silhouettes are best to begin with and then experiment with color. Tissue paper or cellphane in bright colors is all that is needed. Cut out the areas to be colored and paste the colored material over the hole. For example, a red kerchief on a pirate is produced by cutting out the shape of the kerchief on the head, leaving a narrow margin of the cardboard all around, and pasting a piece of red cellophane over the cut out place. Scenery and Properties for Shadowgraphs All scenery or properties are cut from cardboard and tacked to the sides of the frame against the screen, on the side away from the audience.

The Screen A shadowgraph screen may be as simple as an old piece of sheet stretched across a doorway, with newspapers covering the space above and below the screen. A permanent screen may be made from a discarded full-length window screen. The wire screening is removed and the lower half covered by taking a sheet of cardboard over it. The top is covered with a piece of sheeting or unbleached muslin stretched tight. A couple of at blocks of wood are nailed to the bottom to form a base so that the screen will stand upright. If your troop has a full-sized stage as described under Puppets, a muslin screen could be placed over the front opening. How to Work Shadowgraph Figures In producing a shadowgraph play it is important to remember several things in order to have a good show. 1. The gure must be moved back and forth close against the screen. 2. The actions of the gures should come exactly at the time indicated in the story. 3. The girls working the gures should be careful to keep below the screen, so that their shadows will not be mixed up with those of the cardboard gures. 4. A better effect is gained if a light that does not make a spot on the screen is used. 5. The words of the story or song should be clearly enunciated. The holder of the light stands back of the screen at a distance that will produce the best shadows. The room should be darkened as much as possible. Dialogue (words of the play) for puppets or shadowgraphs may be presented several ways. Each person may work a gure and do the speaking for that character. One person may tell the whole story, or a group may sing a song while others work the gures. Or, the audience may be given a brief outline of the story, omitting the dialogue entirely.

Your Shadowgraphs To help, you will nd four pages of printable shadowgraphs after this page. The bird, star and dog were taken from the previous images. Do these rst to get the feeling of creating shadowgraphs. You can see how they go together because of the previous images. The brownie shadowgraphs does not have more than indication on where to place the brads for the legs. This is to get you more familiar with creating your own shadowgraphs.