Monday, February 26, 2024

Sandra Silberzweig style Whimsical Portrait Paintings

 


Grade 4-6 students created these poster sized portrait paintings inspired by contemporary Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig. 

 She has a rare condition known as "synesthesia". People Diagnosed with this condition, see, hear and taste color! Children growing up with this condition, may not be aware that others do not see or experience the world as they do. She uses her talents to create tribal-like colorful abstract portraits. Her influences come from  many sources. Picasso's art influenced  her work most of all.  

I started off by showing a slideshow of Silberzweig's artwork. We discussed how stylized her portraits are, with elements of Cubism. 

On poster paper, students drew out their good copy face. 



Then they outlined them using a King Size Sharpie.


Some kids worked on the floor so they had space to spread out!


The first media they used was watercolour. They painted in all the areas of the face- not the background.
  


Next class, they added chalk pastel over top the watercolour in areas, and blended that out.
Then they painted the entire background with black tempera. This needed two coats to be fully opaque.
Once dry, they used gold tempera (I like the gold from the brand 'Handy Art') and painted a simple pattern on top of the black backgrounds.


The final step was using acrylic paint pens to add small patterns and line work 


Some Grade 4,5,6 paintings:






























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