Pop Art Chimps

Today I had a 2 hour Animal Art Fun workshop for children ages 6-12. This wide age range posed a challenge for me to create projects appropriate for 1st graders thru 6th. I thought these multi media pop art chimps were basic enough for my younger students, yet would work well for my middle schoolers. I gave the children acrylics in blue, yellow, orange and hot pink with no water to clean their brushes. I encouraged them to start with the lightest color - yellow, and fill their board with color. We discussed which overlapping color combos would create beautiful colors and which would create a muddy look (blue and orange) that we were trying to avoid with this particular project. From there, they could approach their painting any way they wished. Once the bases were dry, (thanks again to my niece with blow dryer to speed things up) the children followed a basic direct line drawing to create their chimpanzees in charcoal. I encouraged them to fill up their page to create bold pop art portraits.