Adventures In Art: It's All A Little Bit Abstract

Welcome back to this week's MG Art Club Challenge - FaceTime.

Yesterday we showed you some 'realistic' portrait pictures by children of different ages (and of course Rose!)

Today we are going to look at a few ABSTRACT portrait ideas. Abstract is the opposite of realistic.

Here is a realistic photo of Miss Jennings.

These are some abstract portraits by Picasso:

In the Picasso portraits the eyes, nose, mouth aren't exactly in the 'right', realistic place.

We're going to make Miss Jennings photo less real and more abstract by muddling it up a bit. You could use a printed picture or a photo from a magazine (the bigger the better as it is easier to cut up).

First draw some simple 2D shapes over the picture.

Now cut out these shapes - if you have some extra bits left over keep them for later as you might use them.

Now rearrange the pieces - the eyes, nose and mouth don't have to go in their 'real' places.

Use up some of your extra pieces if you want, by sticking them on too.

You could finish here, adding anything else to your picture that you want. If you stuck things onto a white/light coloured background you could colour different parts in - anything you want.

Or......you could draw the collage you have just made.

Then colour it in, going over your lines to make them stand out.

You can still see Miss Jennings eyes, nose and mouth, but can you spot her:

cheeks?
ears with earrings?
chin?
hair?

A few years ago some Year 4 children tried this, enlarging their small collages and sketches to large drawings which they painted in bright colours, outlining their lines with marker pens.

Another idea could be a Picasso style front on and profile portrait.

To do this, draw a simple u-shaped face.

Divide this in half, both length and width ways, lightly with a pencil.

Draw a nose in the top right-hand quarter (using the pencil lines you have drawn to help you.

Now in the left hand quarter draw an eye in profile - a fallen over V shape.

On the opposite side draw a front on eye, looking straight out and add some eyebrows to both eyes.

Now draw a mouth in profile.

Add a front on mouth to it.

Now draw along your centre line, from the head to the chin, but not going over your lips.

Add some ears.

Add some hair, any style you want!

Having rubbed out your light pencil lines, colour in, using bright, bold colours. Felt pens work quite well.

This is also an abstract portrait of Miss Jennings.

How would you know it is Miss Jennings?
However, there is something wrong with the colour of her eyes - can you spot it? What should it be?

Here's some Year 2 did a few years ago, with their profile noses looking the other way.

You could put both ideas together adding some collage features like this too......the skies the limit!!

Finally, the artist Paul Klee set himself some rules to challenge himself with his drawing. One was the 'Unbroken Line'. He used to draw faces without taking his pencil off the page, using a single line (you can go back over the same line if you want....just DON'T take your pencil off the page). He then used the sketch he had done as the basis for a portrait picture.