Tuesday 3 May 2016

Klimt on Tinfoil


This lesson on Gustav Klimt would make a great follow up to my previous lesson on Hundertwasser. Both artists make heavy use of decorative pattern in their work and the influence of Klimt can certainly be seen in Hundertwasser's visual language.

In this lesson, students will learn how to make a decorative portrait of the sort Klimt is famous for. They should start by mixing yellow and brown tempera paint to get a woody, burnt sienna tone. This will be the background colour for their portrait, so they can paint their whole sheet of paper with it.


Students can then take a piece of tinfoil and cut it out into an elongated, irregular shape. This piece of tinfoil will form the body of the figure in the portrait, so students should be aware of this when preparing their piece. The tinfoil can then be glued on to the painted background.


For the next step, young people should take a pencil and lightly sketch the head and hair of their figure just above the top of the tinfoil piece.


The head, hair and facial features can then be coloured with oil pastel.


Finally, the students can paint some Klimt influenced patterns (a wealth of them can be found here) onto their tinfoil. The tinfoil will catch light through the tempera paint giving a pleasing iridescence.


A couple of other completed examples can be seen below.






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