DIY Silhouette Portrait - Simple and Straight from Your iPhone!

how to make silhouette art from your iphone

Let’s talk about one of the easiest (and sweetest!) DIYs you can whip up in under 15 minutes…DIY silhouette portrait straight from your phone. Whether you’re decorating a nursery, creating a gallery wall, or looking for a heartfelt Mother’s Day gift, this project is simple, budget-friendly, and will make your heart explode because a classic silhouette photo is just so timeless and precious!

When looking at creating your own DIY silhouette art, at first it can feel intimidating. How do you make a silhouette portrait? Can you turn a photo into a silhouette? Luckily, the process is way easier than you would think and you can make an easy silhouette that you will treasure for years with just your iPhone! Read below for the best tips and my step-by-step guide.

This post is about DIY Silhouette Art.

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What Is Silhouette Art?

Silhouette art is that classy, all-black side-profile look you’ve probably seen in vintage-style décor, but it’s also making a comeback in the modern farmhouse side of interior design. It’s sentimental, timeless and for myself as a mother, it makes me so happy to look at everyday. What’s not to love!?

Ok…let’t get into it!

What You’ll Need:

A smartphone
Canva app (you need Canva pro but you can do a free trial)
A clear side profile photo
A way to print your photos
Frames

Step-by-Step: How to Make Your Own DIY Silhouette Portrait

First things first, you’ll want to find a plain wall to put your child up next to and take their picture.

Some tips I picked up along the way:

Try to get your child in the center of the frame and leave room on the top and sides.
If you have girls, you’ll want to give them some type of hairstyle like a braid, bun, or pigtails (this will help give their silhouette some shape and not look so much like a blob when the silhouette is done)
Try to tame the flyaway hairs as much as you can (this will save you some “erasing” later)

Save

Once you have your picture on your phone, you will open up the Canva app and get started. I took screenshots from my phone and broke it down step by step. So just follow along below!

Canva Step-by-Step: DIY Silhouette Portrait

Click the purple “+” button and “custom size” to create a new design.

2. Complete the sizing you want – Depending on what size of frames you are using is what will determine this. We did 8×10 prints.

3. Click “Upload”

-Your image should look like this! 🙂

4. Stretch the image to fit and click “Background Remover”

-Your image should look like this! 🙂

5. Select image and click “Effects”

6. Select image and click “Duotone”

7. Pick any color (I did POP).

8. Click the white circle on the color you picked.

9. Select the first circle under “Highlights”

10. Pull the circle to the bottom left to make the color black.

11. Do the same thing for the second circle under “Shadows”

12. Select image and “Background Remover”

13. Select image and “Magic Eraser”

14. Use the brush tool to clean up the flyaway hairs a bit (you can make the circle as large or small as you need)

use the brush to clean up the flyaway hairs

15. Use the brush tool to shape the shoulders and give them some curve.

16. Finally, click the square with the arrow and then “Download”. This will save the image to your camera roll.

From Phone to Prints: DIY Silhouette Portrait

Ok, now for the easy part! Once you have your image downloaded you are just going to go to your phone gallery and order your prints. I like to use Walgreens because we have one close and they can print pretty quick. They almost always have a coupon on their website to be sure to check that out!