Step by Step:
(1)This date is fairly simple, but can be incredibly fun. The first step, of course, is to ask someone out. When you ask your date out, you’re welcome to explain what you both will be doing, explain that it will be indoors (that’s important so your date knows how to dress), and you could even ask him/her to bring 5-10 unique items from around his/her apartment/house (and maybe see if he/she has a flashlight).
(2) On your end, I would gather a bunch of random items and shapes. You can use boxes, cups, cans, pens, and anything else that would create a unique shadow.
(3) Next you pick up your date and go back to wherever you’ve planned on creating the shadow art. Wherever it is, I would recommend using a flat hard surface (like a table or the floor) and have it close to a wall.
(4) Once there, you pull out the items (including the ones that your date brought, if you asked him/her to) and you set them to the side. From there you can experiment with the different shapes that each make.
(5) After that, it’s totally up to you to create some cool shadows! I think that cities are the easiest, but you really can make anything. As a way of figuring it out, if you look up online “Shadow Art”, you can find some really amazing ideas. Also, if you need to create certain shapes, you could always cut them out of paper and tape them to other parts of your art.
(6) Once everything is set up, turn off the lights and the flashlight on! Play around with your art and tweak it as needed.
(7) At the end, take some pictures of your masterpieces, clean up, and take your date home!
Cost: This date can actually be done for little to no money. If you did need to spend money, I wouldn’t expect you to need to spend more than $10.
What do you need:
- Objects of different shapes! You can use boxes, cans, sups, pens, scissors, and really anything else you can think of, that would cast a unique or cool shadow.
- Paper, tape, toothpicks, etc (all optional).
- A flashlight (or two, if you’re each doing it).
- A flat surface and wall.
Where to get the supplies:
- I would search around the house/apartment for different things to use.
- You could also go to DI or a thrift store and get fun items for the art.
Ideas to mix up the date:
- You could easily make it a competition and see who can make the best shadows.
- You could pick a city that you both love, and try to recreate it via shadows.
- You could give each other challenges. For example, “use this fork in your creation” or “make it look like
- Another idea to shake it up would be to draw art and then use objects to cast shadows on it (see Shadowology by Vincent Bal).
- You could also make hand-shadow art.
How to do the date:
When I did this date I did it long distance, and I just told my date to have a bunch of different objects of different shapes, along with a flat surface and a flashlight. Then when we started the date, we actually started by picking animal shadows for each other to make (with that we each took a few minutes to google how to make them). After we did that, I explained that we were going to make shadow city art and I texted her pictures off of Google, of what that looked like. Then we got to work trying to make the best cities! Once we were both finished, we showed each other the art we made. It was really cool! Then we made each other’s favorite cities (learning what those looked like with the help of Google Images) and later landmarks (like waterfalls, mountains, the Eiffel Tower, etc). After telling stories about our favorite cities, sharing our shadow masterpieces, and talking, we talked about our favorite pieces of the date. At the end of our conversations, we thanked each other for the date and ended the call.
Expectations:
- Learn how creative your date can be
- Learn a bit more about a favorite place that he/she grew up in (or just likes)
- Have fun trying to make unique shapes
Type of date: #justadate & #longdistance
No car: Other than picking up your date or any unique items for the art, you don’t need a car. And weather and distance permitting, you can both just walk to meet up.
Pro Tip:
- I would advise you to tell your date to have at least 10-15 objects. Otherwise he/she might not feel like there’s enough objects to work with.
- Starting with the hand shadows was a fun easy way to work up to the shadow art of making cities.
