Pop art style is easy to teach and create. Students can create interesting paintings of popular brands of pop and discover the pop art style of art. This art project is for students in grade 6 - 8. Teachers can teach about Andy Warhol pop art, other famous pop artists and pop art in today’s culture.
Materials:
Various brands of pop cans, cartridge drawing paper, 4B pencils, acrylic paints.
Step 1 - Preparing the Students
Bring in various artists’ examples of pop art to introduce this style to students. Picture, slides, books or other visual aids are helpful to teach the lesson. An example of pop art on thumbdrives can be found at: http://www.gadgetfolder.com/emtec-thumbdrives-with-pop-art-style.html
Pictures of Obama in pop art are found in the Chicago Tribune’s page at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-photoshell-obama-art-html,0,3434815.htmlpage.
Andy Warhol’s pop art painting of Campbell’s tomato soup can painted in red and green is a good example. Information on how mass advertising influenced Andy Warhol’s career is found at: http://www.imagekind.com/art/Pop_Art/andy_warhol_pop_art/
Show how artists often used large paintings or drawings of mass produced products in unusual ways. For example, large, inedible sculptures of popsicles in brown fur show how this art form depicts popular yet unexpected colors or textures.
Step 2 – Sketch the pop can
Using 12 x 18 inch drawing paper, sketch the pop can from a view showing the top of the can. Teach students how to draw both a curved top and bottom to make it look 3 dimensional. Since it will be a painting, only sketch detail that can be painted in. Try to make the main letters as close to the original as possible.
Step 3 - Painting
Use bright acrylic paints to paint the can. Try to use unexpected colors such as blue on a coke can, and green on a pepsi can. If the colors are green, yellow or orange for citrus drinks, try to pick complementary colors such as purple and blue instead. Have the students mix together blues and yellows to create different colors of green. Add black for darker shades and white for lighter shades of the colors.
Paint the letters in first, then paint in the backgrounds. Try to paint the brush strokes around the can to help make it look round. Try to paint in white spots where light hits the can.
Step 4 – Displaying the Art
Remember to display the student work together in a showcase to make the art pop out. Use a background color such as yellow to make the bright colors stand out. Try to have different types of pop displayed together. Display them side by side just as Coke cans would be displayed on store shelves. This adds to the idea of mass marketing pop culture which artists were fascinated with at the time. The title of the display could be “Pop Art, Pop Cans, Pop Culture”.