This easy Pop art portrait for kids is a fun printmaking project that incorporates the colors and style of Pop art!
What is Pop art…
Pop art is one of the most easily recognizable genres of art. It’s colorful art, as in technicolored. The focus of Pop art is popular culture. That means the subjects of Pop art are things that are easily recognizable like celebrities or mass produced products.
Pop art often used mechanical or commercial techniques like screen printing and other printmaking techniques to mass produce images.
Check out this free printable Andy Warhol artist study and this Keith Haring artist study as great way to introduce your kiddos to the world of Pop art!
What do you need for your own Pop art portrait…
- You’ll need a photo of yourself or another person or animal you’d like to work with. It needs to be a simple image without tons of detail or background. Choose a photo small enough that it will fit four times on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.
- Plastic page protectors– these can be used and reused by several students
- A fine tipped washable black marker
- White paper
- Crayons
- Water and a paper towel
Starting your Pop art printmaking….
Page protectors can be left intact if they are going to be used again for their original purpose. If not they can be cut into about 8 different squares that can be used again and again by students.
Lay the clear plastic page sheet on top of your photo. Trace over the outlines and edges of the photo using the black washable marker. Don’t worry about making it perfect, just outline basic shapes.
Dampen a paper towel with water and moisten 1/4 of a white piece of paper. Flip the page protector over, marker side down, on the damp paper. The water will “reactivate” the marker and transfer it to the paper creating a print!
Making multiples….
Pop art often featured repetition. Printmaking is an easy process to create multiples of the same image.
Line the photo and the page protector up again and retrace any lines that are missing. If the remaining lines are too smeared you can always wipe the plastic clean and start fresh!
Dampen a portion of the white paper and flip the plastic over onto it. Repeat this process until all four quadrants of paper are filled with prints.
Printmaking isn’t perfect….
While each print portrays the same image it will also be a bit unique. The process invites imperfections and, depending on your kiddo, this may or may not be welcomed!
More water can mean blurrier lines. Too little water means the marker may not transfer.
Make a print, move on and make another accepting that each will for sure be a little different but contribute to an amazing end product!
If you have a little perfectionist in the making be sure to check out this list of art experiences perfect for loosening up and enjoying the process!
Add color to your Pop art portraits…
This part is all fun! Begin by using a ruler to divide your paper into four quadrants. Measure if you want them exact or wing it based off of print placement. Either way is fine.
Pop art is known for using bold, unrealistic colors. So there are no real rules here except for adding super bright colors that don’t look like real life. Four prints means four different colors of hair, of skin, of background, etc.
We used crayon for this step because they provide an easy way to out down a lot of color. I do not recommend using markers because they will smear the black lines of the prints.
