Keith Haring Art for Kids – Pop Art Lesson Idea

Let your child or students explore pop art and graffiti styles with this Keith Haring art project for kids that features step-by-step instructions and plenty of information about the artist to incorporate into your lessons.

Keith Haring is an important artist to include in your lessons if you are teaching art to your child or a group of children. His art has an iconic style that no one since him has been able to match.

Keith Haring Art for Kids – Exploring Pop Art with Crayola

This lesson can easily be taught to your own child at home or in a group. It is an easy yet fun lesson, and it gives your child space to be creative while also focusing on their drawing skills. It also uses pastels, which are not commonly used and are a great way to introduce them and show what colour shades really look like as they are as vibrant as any art medium can be.

I’m going to give you some lesson tips and tricks to make it easier and inclusive for teaching different age groups. But first, let’s talk a little bit about Haring so you can also share some art history with them in your lessons.

Start your art lesson with information about Keith Haring (for kids)

Keith Haring was born in Pennsylvania in 1958. He had been drawing since he was a child and learned it from his father. Cartooning was a huge influence on him and he honed his skills when he went to school for commercial art in 1976 but quickly realized that it wasn’t for him.

He later developed his own artistic style and even had a solo exhibition in 1978.

He moved to New York City and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts, and it was there that he found a place where he felt at home. The artists there were not only making art at school, but also taking art to the streets. His art became something you could see on the subway and on the streets of the city, and he felt compelled to become a public artist, not just someone who showed his work in a museum.

He became very famous in the 1980s when he could be seen painting on the walls and ceilings of subway trains. People got used to seeing his artwork and he called it his laboratory.

His sketching style became the style we recognise today. He opened his own shop called “POP shop” in 1986, where the walls were covered in his artwork and you could buy merchandise with his iconic images on them. He did murals, did drawing workshops for children and also worked to help many wonderful charities for children and adults. Sadly, he passed away in 1990, far too young, but his legacy lives on.

Tips for learning art

So for this lesson, after reading them some information about his life and showing them some examples of his work, point out the thick cartoon outlines he used. Be sure to include the lines he placed around people or objects to emphasize movement.

Little lines make a big difference in their drawing, and so do people. It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference. So explain to them that they’re going to create their own series of people.

They can do a series of moves, like jumping jacks, or it can be just 4 random poses of their choice. (For younger kids, kindergarten through first grade, I sketch out a group of people jumping jacks for them before they come to class, so all they have to do is color them in with crayons.)

Keith Haring Art for Kids Materials Needed

What you need for each child:

• 1 sheet of construction paper colored to their liking
• 1 sheet of blank paper/ 2 sheets for older children
• 4 small pieces of white paper that you will pre-cut
• Chalk in a variety of colors, and definitely black chalk for sketching
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Glue
• Cover

And for you – Spread a plastic tablecloth over your workspace, making cleanup easier and protecting your desk.

Step by Step Guide to Keith Haring Art for Kids – Pop Art Lesson Ideas

Before class, cut out a set of 4 rectangles of white paper, all the same size, for each child. These will then need to be glued onto construction paper and you will want to make them to size so that there is a generous amount of border around them.

For younger children, this is where you will sketch out the images for them first. I drew one set in pencil and then sketched out the remaining sets so they all had the same shape.

Let your child choose a color for the lining paper and then tell him to think of that color to coordinate with the color of chalk he uses.

Draw shapes

Ask them to create their own shapes in different poses. Ask them to imagine the pose or even ask another child to pose it for them if that helps. If they are having trouble with the cartoon shape of the shapes, they can first draw a stick figure and then draw around it to get that shape. Then ask them to erase the stick figure. They will need to draw as lightly as possible so that the pencil marks do not show through the chalk later.

One trick is to draw the head first, letting the body follow and get the right size. If they draw the head too big, the body won’t fit on the paper either, so make sure to show them an example.

Coloring with crayons

Once you have drawn the shapes, you will use colored chalk to color them. You should use one color for the shapes and one color for the background.

Using the edge of the pastel, holding it the way you would hold a pencil, you can get a thin line, suitable for both the thinner areas of the figure and the outline. Then using the wider side of the pastel, you can color in the areas more easily and quickly.

Have them place a sheet of white paper under their workspace and as they color with their pastels, they can tap the drawing paper against the bottom sheet to catch the chalk dust. This prevents dust from flying all over the desk.

They may need to apply a layer of chalk and then go back and fill in the white areas. Some children will not want to do this and prefer a patchy colour.

Once both the shape and background are colored, the sketching is done.

Emphasize using the edge or corner of the chalk for thinner lines. For younger children, I outline for them, as it is difficult to control the square shape of the chalk with small hands like a pencil.

Create pop art collages

Now I paste the pictures for them because chalk smudges easily. So just ask them in advance what order they want the pictures to be on the page.

When I glued them down I rolled the glue on the cardboard so I wouldn’t flip the chalk drawing, then I used the glue container to roll it on the paper to help me flatten the paper and help it stick to the glue, this worked better than using my fingers and smudging.

The glue stick container is the perfect size for this game. Now you can take it home.

For older kids, grades 5-8, I also ask them to create a large drawing or painting in the same style, but not necessarily of a person.

Another blank sheet of paper for that purpose. I wanted to help them hone their drawing skills a little more and give them a chance to try something similar on a larger scale. Many chose not to or ran out of time, but those who did did some great work.

As for storing the pastels, you can send them home with a sheet of paper over the pastel drawings, or just suggest they store them that way, or spray them in mod podge to preserve them. (If you have the space and time to spray them yourself, you can do it yourself, but it smells bad and needs good ventilation, plus time to dry and not stink up their car on the way home!)

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Categories: Activities for Kids
Source: fetb.edu.vn