Pop Art Group Projects

Our Pop Art Group Projects are collaborative artworks for up to 20 people. Each participant completes a section of the image which is then assembled with the others to create a unique artwork.

The strength of this lesson lies in the fact that all of the participants, irrespective of their individual artistic abilities, contribute to the success of the whole project and consequently a sense of achievement is shared by all. Follow the instructions below to see how it works.

 

Step 1 - Creating a Template

You start the project by creating a template image. You can find out how to do this in our Pop Art Portrait Lesson.

Note: You also have the option of printing any of our eighteen different A3 template portraits that you can reach by clicking on the pop art portraits at the bottom of each page.

 

Step 2 - Cutting up the Template

Next, you cut out the individual square sections of the template drawing and distribute them among the participants.

 

Step 3 - Coloring the Sections

Each person then takes their individual template section and creates a color version.

Note: It is important to use bright colors, patterns or textures for the light tones, and dark colors, patterns or textures for the dark tones. Sticking to this rule will help you to create a unified image and keep the result recognizable.

 

Step 4 - Reconstructing the Image

When all the individual sections are completed, they are arranged to reconstruct a colorful and surprising interpretation of the portrait. The surprise of the final result is increased if the participants are kept in the dark about the identity of the subject. It is always good fun discovering who it is as the image is rebuilt.

Step 5 - The Final Result

Finally, all the individual sections are glued down onto a large sheet of paper or card to complete our Pop Art Group Project.

 

Experiment with the Scale

It is possible to increase the scale of the final work by making each section proportionally larger. If each section was scaled up to 1 metre square, the final work would be 4X5 metres. This is a good method for creating large scale artworks with a group of students.

 

Pop Art Group Project 1 - Colors

In this example of our Pop Art Group Project, each section was colored, using a premixed palette of bright and dark colors, relating to the tones of its corresponding template section. Those sections which were indicated as skin were colored using a premixed palette of flesh tones.

 

Pop Art Group Project 2 - Tones

In this example of our Pop Art Group Project, each section was shaded with either light or dark graduated colors relating to the corresponding tones on each template section.

 

Pop Art Group Project 3 - Patterns

In this example of our Pop Art Group Project, the light areas of each section were colored with bright colors, whereas the shaded areas were filled with dark patterns. In developing this example it was discovered that using patterns for both light and dark areas tended to camouflage the image.

 

Pop Art Group Project 4 - Textures

In this example of our Pop Art Group Project, the light areas of each section were colored with bright textures, whereas the shaded areas were filled with dark textures. Textures can be created with any wet or dry medium or can be collaged from photographic or printed materials.

Pop Art Portraits
You can click on any image to link to their pop art portraits.
Pop Art Portrait Lesson		Pop Art and Pop Artists		Pop Art Group Project