Pop Art Clay Portraits – Lesson Plan

MARY:
In the 1950s,
Andy Warhol created silkscreen portraits
of celebrities using mass-produced images and non-traditional
blocks of colour, which became Pop Art icons. I’m going to show you a fun
and easy technique to transfer and duplicate
images onto clay tiles. Then, by adding interesting
colour combinations, students can create
their own Pop Art self portraits. Hi, I’m Mary Skydema and I’d like to introduce you
to Pop Art Clay Portraits. First, have students find
a photograph of themselves and make a black
and white copy of it. A close up works best, and it should be
as simple as possible. You’ll want your work tables
to be covered in canvas to keep the clay
from sticking. A white clay body works best
for vibrant colour and you can cut the slabs
right from the block. I’ve rolled a slab of clay
about a quarter inch thick. A thickness strip on
each side of the slab helps to keep the slab even, and you want to roll both ways
across the slab to align the clay particles and reduce your chances
of warping later. The slab is just slightly
larger than the image I’m going to use. So have your students
decide which features of the photograph will need to be transferred
to make the most effective, simplified line drawing. I’m going to use a gel pen to
go over the lines of the photo that I’m going to
transfer to the clay. I like to mark
the four corners for ease of cutting later. I just like to put small
little marks in the corners with my gel pen that I’m going to
use as a guide. So we’re going to place
the image face down onto the clay and rub it
with your fingers. We’re just going to let it
sit for a few seconds. We’re going to peel up
the paper to check the transfer. If it’s not quite dark enough,
wait a few more seconds and remove the paper. If your clay is
slightly drier, a little mist on the back of
the paper will do the trick. Your portrait has transferred, and as you can see
it’s now a mirror image. At this point I’m going to use
a ruler to cut the slab into a tile. I’m using these little marks I left as a guide
on the corners. Okay, and you can just smooth
the edges of the tile slightly with a little water
on your fingertips, and then we’re
going to start carving. Now we’re going to use
a small ribbon tool to carve into our image. This soft slab can
very easily be carved. Some might prefer to let
the clay stiffen slightly, and you’ll figure out
which you prefer. In addition to using
these ribbon tools to carve, you can also just use
a single layer of a baggie, place it over the tile, and use a pen
to just go over your lines. This is going to result in
a nice smooth edge without burrs. You can see
how that turns out. Try not to move the tile
other than to flip it over once or twice
for even drying. When the tile
is completely dry, or fired,
it’s time to apply colour. I like to fill all my
carved lines in with black paint to
mimic the black outline many of the Pop artists used. If your tile is fired, you can paint black
acrylic paint into the lines. I’m just moistening it
a little bit with clear water. I’m just going to take some
plain old black acrylic and brush it over about
a 1/4 of the tile a time. Got to move a little bit quickly
so that you don’t have a whole lot remove, then you just go back
with your sponge, and wipe off
the surface of the tile. It’s going to leave the black
acrylic in the carved areas. If your tile is made
of air dry clay, the black paint must be
painted into the carved areas. Now with a small brush
we can apply colour. For this project
Blick Studio Acrylics gives good coverage on either the fire tile
or the air dry one. Pastels are another option,
but should be sprayed with a fixative as a last step. Oil colours also work well,
and give a very deep colour saturated
finished product, and ceramic underglazes look great as is or with
a clear glaze on top. A PDF version of
this lesson plan, along with a materials list
and national standards are available on
the Blick Lesson Plans page. Captioned by GigEcast
www.gigecast.com
@KissMyChristin This specific technique will work only with with self-hardening clay and ceramic clay.
where to purchase this self hardening clay? do the clay come as a tile form already? Thanks great project.
@artsy721 When rolling the clay slabs out, make sure to roll in both directions and keep the clay an even thickness – this will help reduce warping. You can also flip the clay over when it is partialy dry.to allow it to dry on the other side.
What clay are you using?
This is pretty cool! I teach art but I only teach once a week, how is this possible to teach students?
what would I need to do differently to do this on polymer clay?
@Avrildulac You may use any standard printer/photocopier paper.
good
Can you use clay that dries in the oven?
So, the gel pen will transfer to clay? What other options besides gel pen is recommended?
Thanks !!!
I love this lesson, but Andy Warhol was doing his pop art portraits in the 60's, not the 50's.
what kind of materials do you use for hanging?
Cool idea!!
Hi! Plz may i know what clay did u use?
when i put water into the photo, the picture itself transferred into the clay
pAsTels
Would have loved to see the finished piece.
can i use italian clay on it?
POP gets dry very soon almost in 5mins. how to do basic outline on pop.
ANDY WARHOL CREATED HIS POP ART IN THE 1960'S NOT THE 1950'S.BEFORE THAT IN THE 1950'S MOST OF THE NEW YORK CITY ART WORLD CREATED ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.POP ART,IN THE 1960'S WAS A DEPARTURE FROM THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM OF THE 1950'S.
easier than this is to simply place paper on clay and trace on paper to clay with round tip tool or pen tip
Awesome another great idea to add to my designing thank you
Can you use polymer clay?
which clay is this can you please name it?
Hi…
Wow …….Wow…….. it is so so beautiful thank you keep it up
Hi…
This is so beautiful.. this clay that you are using is not available in my country can I use Air Dry Natural clay. I really want to try this can you please any substitute clay that I can use.
Thank you so much for this lovely tutorial………
Would gel pen transfer to other mediums like air dry clay or cold porcelain?
Very good wow
Really nice. Thank you
Love you site! Go STEAM!
crazy
Hi. Can acrylic colours be used for the painting..
I have been trying for some time to transfer a drawing onto wet ADC, with not much luck. I've tried gel pens (transfers very faint), and felt tip pens (this looked great, but within an hour it was 'melting' and disappeared into the ADC. I tried the ball point pen (with high hopes after reading your suggestion below), and it did nothing as well. I am dampening the paper on the back to transfer the image, and have gone from regular computer paper to thicker, nearly card stock. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance.
kavin
Which clay u have used?
Nice mam
Can we use salt dough or cold porcelain. Please reply me fast. I would like to do it for my hubby for valentine's day. Please reply me
which clay u used and nice video plss do visit on my channel also pls thanks for the information contained
So awesome dear
good
Amazing, thanks for upload
.
Wat type of clay v should use…??
💘
U ruined the face
Nice art madam
Amazing…😘😘😘
subscribed and liked
nice technic
nice
Oooohhh
Wow…. Nice video
Very nice g
Great instructional video. Wouldn't I have to flip the photo horizontally before transfering to the clay, as to avoid a flipped image?
Nice
Awesum Video and Technique. Keep making more. 😊👍
Also like my Video and help me grow.
https://youtu.be/9fDbCzNqfmA
Regards.
Dr. Naresh Rathod.
Perfect for homeschool projects