Pop Art Self Portraits

We studied Andy Warhol pop art as a follow up to our study of Jasper Johns.  Warhol used these amazing colors in his art work that really vibrated together.  This was a perfect opportunity for students in Middle and High School to focus on creating these beautiful pop art self portraits.  They used clear transparencies and a black and white close up photo of themselves.  After tracing it in sharpie, they did a collage with tissue over it with amazing results.  Check these out!

Thanks so much to Jen Devin, a friend and local art teacher, for the great idea!  FYI, I also tried these in various acrylic paints, neon acrylic, and none of them worked as well as the tissue.  The paint was too streaky and looked to transparent and washed out.  Lots of fun and the students really enjoyed this project!

Number Grids

Students painted first using two of the colors from the triad they selected

after the base coat dried, let the dry brushing begin...

I love how she had meaningful letters and numbers

This one has a hidden word when upside down!

Superb brushwork!

We are studying the iconic images of Jasper Johns.  I just love how he shows the process of the materials he uses, so painterly and handcrafted.  Students are creating their own number grid (some are using letters as well) and are learning about using a triadic color scheme.  We spend time also in this lesson talking about caring for your paintbrushes, which to me is an important lesson in itself.

Students drew a grid on tag board with a ruler...didn't have to be perfect but somewhat evenly spaced. They cut out numbers from craft foam to glue onto their grid in any order they preferred.  I could have bought the numbers ready made from foam, but I prefer them hand-cut.  They glued them on the grid in one class.  Next class was about painting and learning to use the dry-brush technique.  They caught on very quickly and created these beautiful pieces of work.  This was done with grades 3 thru 12. Excellent results and lots of fun! Thank you to Art Projects for Kids for the wonderful idea.  I do prefer the hand-cut look of the numbers out of foam.

Self-portraits in Masking Tape

Students enjoyed this portrait lesson as an alternative to drawing the details of the face and being disappointed about not being able to get it "right".  After explaining the proportions of the human face, students used this information to practice drawing their own portrait.  They were able to use mirrors and I spoke with them about the different features of the face being slightly higher, lower, wider, more narrow, etc and how this will determine if the portrait is a likeness.  After their practice, they then drew their portrait onto yellow construction paper.  They tore the blue painters tape into narrow strips and covered the pencil lines with the tape.  They all had amazing results.  Meredith and Jackson are in the 3-5th grade class. Zane is in the Middle School class and he turned his head a bit in his portrait.  Drew is in the High School class and used a lost and found line to complete his portrait.  Great job to the students and thanks to Art Projects for Kids for this great idea.