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Silhouette with Image Trace in Adobe Illustrator

Silhouette in Adobe Illustrator

Silhouettes are a powerful and versatile tool in Adobe Illustrator that allows artists to create striking and memorable visuals. Keywords such as Adobe Illustrator silhouette, create silhouette Illustrator, Illustrator silhouette tutorial, make silhouette Illustrator, silhouette trace image, silhouette tracing, make a silhouette in Illustrator, and create a silhouette in Illustrator are essential for understanding the potential and artistic applications of this technique.

Adobe Illustrator provides a variety of methods to create silhouettes, giving artists the flexibility to express their creativity in unique and captivating ways. Whether it’s capturing the essence of a person, an object, or a landscape, silhouettes offer a simplified representation that emphasizes shape and form.

One approach to creating a silhouette in Illustrator is by manually tracing or drawing the outline of the subject. This technique allows artists to exercise full control over the shape and details of the silhouette, enabling them to infuse their personal style and artistic vision into the final result.

Another method involves using the Trace Image feature in Illustrator to automatically generate a silhouette from a reference image. This feature analyzes the image and converts it into a vector-based shape, effectively creating a silhouette based on the high-contrast areas of the original image. Artists can adjust the settings to achieve the desired level of detail and precision in the resulting silhouette.

Silhouettes can be used in a wide range of creative projects, such as illustrations, graphic design, logo design, and more. They offer a bold and impactful visual style that can convey emotions, tell stories, or evoke a sense of mystery and intrigue. Silhouettes are particularly effective in conveying recognizable shapes and forms while maintaining a certain level of abstraction and artistic interpretation.

In addition to their aesthetic appeal, silhouettes are also highly versatile. They can be combined with other design elements, such as color, texture, or typography, to create visually stunning compositions. Silhouettes can be incorporated into backgrounds, used as focal points, or employed as graphic elements that add visual interest and depth to a design.

Adobe Illustrator provides artists with powerful tools and techniques to create captivating silhouettes. Whether it’s through manual tracing or automated image tracing, artists can leverage the flexibility of Illustrator to bring their artistic visions to life. Silhouettes offer a simplified yet impactful representation that allows artists to focus on shape, form, and visual impact. With their versatility and aesthetic appeal, silhouettes are a valuable addition to any creative project, enabling artists to unlock their creativity and produce visually stunning artwork in Adobe Illustrator.

Adding a Silhouette to your artwork is also a good way of illustrating. There are several ways of creating a Silhouette in Adobe Illustrator but in today’s tutorial, I am going to show you how you can create a Silhouette with the help of the Image Trace Option.
 
With the Image Trace Option, it is really easy to create a Silhouette if the choice of the photograph is correct. Always prefer to have a light or white background image.
 
After selecting the image, follow the below steps to create Silhouette in Adobe Illustrator.
 

Step 1

After creating a new document in Illustrator, click on File in the Menu Bar and select Place to insert the image in the illustrator. I have placed an image with a white background as you can see in the below image.
 
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Step 2

As the image has been placed, now it’s time to trace the image. There are pre-set image tracing options available in Illustrator.
 
Select the image and click on the Image Trace button in the Properties Panel. When you will click on the Image Trace Button a popup will appear with the pre-set options. Click on the Silhouettes option.
 
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Step 3

When you will click on Silhouettes, the result which will appear may not be a perfect silhouette that you had desired for but you can create your perfect silhouette by making few alterations in the Image Trace settings.
 
The result produced by the Silhouettes option is shown in the below image.
 
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Now to fill up the white shade of the image you have to increase the Threshold. For this open the Image Trace Panel by clicking on the button appearing next to the Silhouette option. If you are not able to find it don’t worry I have shown it in the below image.
 
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In the Image Trace Panel, you will see an option of Threshold. Increase the value of Threshold but before that check-mark on Preview so that you can see the result of the changing value of Threshold.
 

Step 4

After increasing the value of the Threshold the result obtained is shown in the below image.
 
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You can see again there are some white patches that are required to be filled but you might be wondering how it would be done. The answer is the Blob Brush Tool.
 
Select the Blob Brush Tool by right click on the Brush Tool. Before using the Blob Brush Tool check the Fill color is Black or not and the Strokes are disabled. Now fill the white patches with black color with the Blob Brush Tool and your Silhouette has been created.
 
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Practice Time

Practice by creating a Silhouette of other images with the help of the Image Trace option.
 
In the next tutorial, I will show you how to create a Silhouette with the help of other tools. Till then share this tutorial with others and follow vividesigning.com for more tutorials.

Author

  • Derry Skinner

    Derry Skinner is a seasoned Adobe Illustrator virtuoso with a remarkable 14 years of experience. Derry's journey in the world of design has been marked by a commitment to excellence and innovation. Specializing in vector art and graphic design, Derry has a keen eye for detail and a talent for transforming ideas into captivating visuals. His extensive experience includes working on diverse projects, ranging from corporate branding to intricate illustrations. Derry Skinner is not just an expert in Adobe Illustrator; he is a trailblazer who combines experience with a passion for pushing the boundaries of visual design.

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