Pop
Art Portrait Lesson
Our
Pop Art Portrait Lesson demonstrates how to simplify and
develop any image to create a classic Pop Art Portrait.
Step
1
- Choosing an Image.
Start
with a photocopy or photograph of the image you wish to
use for your Pop Art Portrait. For this demonstration
we have chosen a detail of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the most
famous portrait in the history of art, but you could use
any image that you want.
Note:
The best images to choose are those that have a strong
contrast between their areas of dark and light. It is
also helpful, as you will discover later in this lesson,
that the proportions of your image can be divided into
squares. Note that our photocopy of the Mona Lisa was
cropped to fit a 4X5 square grid (mouse-over the illustration).
Step
2 - Drawing an Outline.
Draw
an outline to simplify and separate the main areas of
dark and light in the image. It is best to keep the outline
strong and simple without too much detail.
Step
3 - Trace and Transfer.
Trace
and transfer your outline drawing onto a fresh sheet of
paper. You can do this by using tracing paper or a lightbox.
Step
4 - Adding Tone
Shade in the dark areas of your drawing to re-establish
the basic tones of the original portrait. This will help
you when it comes to selecting appropriate tones, colors,
patterns and textures for your image.
Step
5 - Making a Template Image
Finally,
draw a square grid over the image. This will help you
transfer your drawing section by section on any scale
that you require. On completion you can erase the grid
lines.
Your
drawing is now ready to use as a template to produce a
range of Pop Art Portraits using color, tone, pattern
and texture as illustrated in our examples below.
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.
Pop
Art Portrait 1 - Color
In
this example, our Pop Art Portrait was created by coloring
the template drawing with primary and secondary colors,
being careful to select the brighter colors for the lightest
tones and darker colors for the darkest tones. If you
are not careful in balancing the tones and colors, the
image may lose impact or look like a negative.
Pop
Art Portrait 2 - Pattern
In
this example, our Pop Art Portrait was created by filling
sections of the template drawing with different patterns.
The central area of the face and the small details were
filled with single colors to make them more visible against
the strong pattern. Too much pattern has the effect of
camouflaging the image. Care has also been taken over
the tonal composition, being careful to select brighter
patterns and colors for the lightest tones.
Pop
Art Portrait 3 - Tone
In
this example, our Pop Art Portrait was created by filling
sections of the template drawing with graduated airbrushed
colors. This technique involves masking and spraying various
sections of the image with colored inks.
Alternatively,
using a soft color medium like pastels which you can blend
with a tissue is a suitable dry method of creating graduated
colors.
Pop
Art Portrait 4 - Texture
In
this example, our Pop Art Portrait was created by filling
the different tonal sections of the work with two contrasting
watercolor textures: one using hot and dark colors for
the darker tones; the other using mainly a mixture of
cool and light colors for the lighter tones.
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Art Portraits |
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can click on any image to link to their pop art portraits. |
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