Becoming Warhol ~ Kids Art Activity

New York City is full of museums, so it was hard to pick one for us to talk about during our exploration of New York City.

But, I ultimately chose The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It allowed us to see all sorts of fun examples of art and well as introduced one particular artist, Andy Warhol.

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After viewing examples of his artwork, both online and in the book, Usborne The Children’s Book of Art: Internet Linked, we were ready to make our own Warhol-inspired artwork.

We used Marilyn Monroe, by Warhol, as our inspiration.

We talked about how the picture looked like a real person, but the colors were different. Warhol used bright colors such as pink and yellow in his picture.

We talked about how art could be anything. It could be realistic or not. Or in the case of Marilyn Monroe, it could be a combination of both.

Then, it was time for the girls to get to work.

I prepped this project by printing out a full letter-sized picture of each girl in black and white.

I found a picture of just their faces since it was most like our inspiration piece. I then got out our markers and told the girls to have fun.

They were a bit hesitant and their first instinct was to try and color their pictures as realistic as possible. So, we looked at our inspiration again. Aha, inspiration struck!

The girls made bright colored hair, hot pink lips, electric blue eyes, orange noses, cool bows, and lots of freckles.

Yes, we became Warhol!

To round out our learning, we read Uncle Andy’s by James Warhola. Warhola is Andy Warhol’s nephew and he wrote and illustrated this delightful picture book describing his childhood visits with his eccentric uncle. It was a fun and very kid-appropriate introduction to Warhol.

Have you studied any of the great artists with your kids? Which ones have you learned about?