Tuesday, February 5, 2013

8th Grade Painting- Pop Art Portraits


For the first time this year, I am teaching painting. I absolutely love painting. It is one of my favorite mediums to work in! I had a lot of apprehensive students coming in to start the 6 weeks because they were worried about their drawing skills but I assured them they would be fine. So far, everyone is VERY successful in their work! 
The first project we are doing is a Pop Art Portrait. They learned about artist Andy Warhol and pop art. They then looked for their own photo of a person they though was "popular". My own example is Bob Ross, although most of them have no idea who he is...how sad!
Using free online photo editing software, Pixlr.com, students changed their photo to black and white and then used the posterize option to break their photo up into areas of different values. They had to have at least 5 values so that they could the original color plus 2 tints and 2 shades (or more).
Students then created a 1/2" grid on the photo and traced around all of their value areas with sharpie (this makes it easier to transfer to the larger paper.
Next, students created a 1" grid on large white paper and enlarged the areas of value, box by box.







When they started to paint, they had to find their middle value and that would be their original, unmixed color. From there, they would paint 2+ tints and then finally 2+ shades.  

I will add more photos as they continue to make progress!

Update 2/7/13






Update 2/13
We have a few finished with more students close to finishing!

12 comments:

  1. Whether it’s a pencil sketch, pop art, picture to art, oil painting orcaricature,personalized art can be a unique gift for any occasion.

    http://www.mydavinci.com/Personalized-Art/Digital/Gift-247051/andyspop4panels.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tempera or Acrylics? Thick paper? 12 x 18 size?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Acrylic. THICK paper. I think we did 18x24 or so. They were large.

      Delete
    2. Thanks! So I have this nice thick board that's 20 x 20 I want to use. If the print out is 8 x 10 will they be able to grid and enlarge this? I'm not great at grid's and measurements. Just getting into this grid thing. BTW my 7th graders are making the Pointing with Dot's right now and loving it! THANK YOU for the idea.

      Delete
    3. If you have an 8x10 picture, you could grid it to 16x20. 1/2 inch grid on the 8x10 and 1 inch grid on the larger paper. If you wanted to grid the entire 20x20, just have the kids leave two rows blank on one side...or cut it off.

      Delete
    4. Thank you so much! Why does that confuse me so much? :) I'm trying this with my 8th graders.

      Delete
  3. By leaving the 2 rows blank then it would be 18 x 20 grid? Or still make 16 x 20 on there? I'm so sorry...again learning how to use a grid to enlarge isn't something I've used or learned along the way for some reason :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would use the paper 20x20 and do a 1" grid on the paper, 1/2" grid on the picture (or 2" on paper, 1" on picture") and you would have two rows on the paper that would be blank. Or if you cut the paper to 16x20, then the grid wouldn't have any blank rows.

      Delete
    2. Perfect! It makes sense now. Painting: Did you have them start with the pure color, then paint 2 tints in, then last the 2 shades? Background one of the colors or any choice?

      Delete
    3. Yes, we started with the original color, then tints, then shades. If they are using a secondary color, have them pre-mix a bunch of that color so that they have enough paint for their original color and then tints and then a separate stash of that color for shades (so it doesn't become tones). I tried to get them to do complementary colors for background but some chose other colors.

      Delete
  4. I'm sorry for all the questions. Thank you for answering me! :) Were the pencil lines super visible after the painting? The grid lines and value lines....should they try to draw them fairly light?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darker colors will cover the pencil lines. Yellow wont. I try to have them grid as light as they possibly can though to avoid the possibility of lines.

      Delete