We started this project at the Contemporary and Modern Art Museum of Trento and Rovereto (MART) in Italy, with Grade 7 students. The Education Department of MART organize lots of interesting art projects for any grade of students, and this activity named “My World” was based on the self-portrait. I don’t show the activity here, but I invite to visit this amazing museum in the North of Italy.
We created the self-portrait drawing on tracing paper overlapping it to a photocopied portrait, following the style of Julian Opie. He is one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists who is interested in the human body and portraits. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and solid colors. Even though the self portraits are simplified we can recognize our faces and our characteristic expressions. In the classroom we used the photocopies of our self-portraits and we colored them with felt-tip pens in solid colors, in the perfect style of Julian Opie
Well these are awesome! Did you use tracing paper and sharpies and then???
Hi Liz. Then we photocopied the drawing on normal paper and colored it with felt-tip pens 😉
Ahhhhh, ok awesome! Thank you
This really cool and pretty inexpensive. I am doing a similar project using clear acetate sheets. Same initial steps, then tracing onto the acetate. You have to prepare the other side of the acetate by sanding it. Turn it over to paint with opaque or acrylic. It’s pretty cool looking, too. I wish I would have seen this first. A lot cheaper! Thanks again Miriam for a great project.
Jen Tineo, California
Thanks Jennifer for your suggestion! How dis you sand the acetate? I think the result is very effective with the glossy and colored surface.
Wow, great project! Where can I get the photocopy of the small portraits you gave your students?
I’ve found it on internet, just for sample. I think you can just show the students some Julian Opie’s pictures like these https://www.artfund.org/thumbnail/400/assets/news/2011/09/xxxx/opie300.jpg or searching for Julian Opie portrait
https://www.google.it/search?newwindow=1&safe=active&biw=1510&bih=854&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=DnKsW7HlJYOSsAH917ywDg&q=julian+opie+portraits&oq=julian+opie+portraits&gs_l=img.3..0j0i24k1.28660.31854.0.32032.10.10.0.0.0.0.118.1122.0j10.10.0….0…1c.1.64.img..0.10.1121…0i67k1j0i8i30k1.0.YdFx3GZgEPk