Pop Art Portraits

   This is the third time I have attempted to get this stuff on my blog. It better work this time, or I give up!!
This is one of those artworks that never fails to be a success. It always seems to work.
   First things is to take a pic of your students, portrait with attitude. I then imported them all into Photoshop and manipulated the images. I oversaturated, played with the colour balance then refined with contrast/brightness. I printed them as A4.
  I laminated each image on an A3 piece of white paper. You can use coloured paper but the colour can affect the results later on. You need to laminate as this provides a non porous surface onto which the students work.
  Around the portrait, student had to create patterns using geometric shapes. This was an Art/Maths lesson - squares, circles, triangles, etc. 
 
Acknowledgement: This resource came from Pinterest
   We used Sharpies markers and coloured permanent markers to create the background as these markers are the only ones that work with the alcohol. Water based markers will not work.
   When the background was completely coloured, I sprayed the artworks with isopropyl alcohol. (In Australia, this can be purchased from hardware stores). I usually spray each artwork 3 times. The alcohol evaporates after about 10 seconds, so 3 sprays takes no time at all.  I find it is on the third spray that the best effects are created. Each time I spray, I do less and less as the alcohol can dissolve away the markers completely if you are not careful.
   We then outlined each section of the background with black markers. We followed the edge created by the alcohol as this produced a natural, random outline. Straight lines do not look good on this artwork!!
  We then used posca pens and metallic markers to recreate patterns. I helped students with their eyes and mouth as some tended to draw their eyes way too big. I was the only one with the white posca pen, anyway.
   I sprayed each artwork with a gloss finish to seal and protect their work. The students were so excited about their portraits. I had to bribe them with a lollipop to keep them at school so that their teacher could see them when she returned. It took a whole day to complete this artwork, about 6.5 hours. The colouring of the background takes a lot of time as students need to not rush and scribble. Leaving white spaces should be avoided.
   I hope you try this artwork as it is well worth the lesson prep I did in preparing the images and laminating them. Enjoy!!!
 (About to publish, so pleeeeease work!!)