Modigliani Portraits

In Dynamic Drawing we explored the life and art of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920).  Modigliani is a painter most widely known for his portraits that featured elongated forms.  Often the faces, particularly the noses and necks, of his subjects were longer than normal.  Other features like eyes and lips were stylized or exaggerated.  Below are two examples of his portraiture.





First:  students used rulers to grid off a 12"x 18" black sheet of construction paper.  It was divided into 16- 4.5"x 3" squares.  This is not as hard as it sounds, just half the paper in both directions to start and the rest is cake!

Second:  Draw the self portrait--this grid allowed students to place the face, eyes, nose, and neck in a way that would allow for an elogated portrait style. The head takes up the top half and the neck and shoulders fill the bottom.  Emphasis was placed on creating facial symmetry, and longer noses.

Third:  Portraits were colored heavily in oil pastels and black pastel was used to outline. I found that adding white under flesh toned pastel makes them glow more.  These turned out fabulous!

Hailey

Heather W.

Adam

Grace

Gaia

Kenna

Maggie

Natalie

Miss Vanessa

Aubree

Jasmine

Mary

Ryley

Tarah