After studying the art of the Expressionists in the 8th grade, we used portraits of famous people, distorting their colors and features. Starting from Edvard Munch and observing the paintings of the German Expressionists of “Die Brucke” group such as Kirchner, Rottluff, Nolde, and Ensor we have seen how the portraits become grotesque, angular, and rigid, through the deformation of colors and traits. The use of bright colors and black, hard, and coarse lines help to make these faces very expressive and powerful.
Starting from black and white photocopies, we worked with oil pastels, creating backgrounds saturated with unreal colors and angular shapes with black lines and strong outlines. Here are the portraits, made unique by our Expressionist interpretation.
Love it! Great for an end of the school year project when motivation and energy levels are low. I can see doing this as a self-portrait, also.