Warhol Pop Portraits

Sixth grade students are ecstatic over this project which incorporates their favorite subject matter...cartoons!

Students practice drawing cartoons first and I give them a double sided hangout of their most loved cartoons (portraits only).  The final project is completed on 4 different colors of 6x9 construction paper glued onto 12x18 manila paper.  Students draw a contour line portrait, outlined in sharpie, and colored with construction paper crayons.

Students learn about Pop Art, discussing 'what is art' and what can be considered art, concluding that personal expression is art.  I also use this opportunity to talk about copyright laws :)

Celebrity Portraits

This project is amongst the favorites of my eighth graders, even those who don't think Pollock drip paintings are "cool."  I print a black and white photo of a celebrity (students choice) and the students transfer the line drawing onto canvas board by rubbing the back with a charcoal pencil.  Students use tints and shades of gray to match the value of the photo.  The objective of this project is not drawing a portrait, which every student learns to do in the seventh grade), but about mixing and blending values.  I display all the portraits in the cafeteria for the school to ogle. 

                                             (Be prepared for a lot of Justin Bieber paintings)