Easy Jean-Michel Basquiat Art Project for Kids Tutorial and Coloring Page
Below you’ll find an easy step-by-step tutorial for a Jean-Michel Basquiat art project for kids. He was a musician, graffiti artist and poet, but most famous for his expressive paintings.
More about this Jean-Michel Basquait Art Project for Kids
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was a Puerto Rican/Haitian American artist known for his neo-expressionist paintings. The movement blew up in the 1980s, dealing with rough handling of materials in opposition to the minimalism and conceptual art prevalent in the 70s.
Basquiat’s work can be characterized as angry, rebellious and controversial. The paintings are simple, almost primitive-looking or child-like.
This tutorial will show students how to make a self portrait in Basquiat’s style by roughly drawing simple shapes, filling them with blotchy paint, and then tracing everything with a thick black oil pastel.
Students will get to see what happens when they trace things several times, and fill shapes with lots of different color. It turns the normal drawing and coloring process on its head, which is probabaly exactly what Jean-Micheal had in mind!
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Basquait Coloring Page
Materials for a Basquait Art Project
- Watercolor Paper. It really does make your watercolor paint look about twice as bright, even if you use a less expensive brand.
- Crayons. The more color choices, the better. But these are plenty!
- Black Marker. A permanent marker will give you a dark black color.
- Oil Pastels. Look at this! Didn’t know you could get a box of just black ones. That’s so helpful!
- Note: All of the above are Amazon affiliate links.
Directions
Time needed: 1 hour
Step by step instructions for a Basquiat project
- Make your main drawing.
Draw a simple body and crown with a pencil.
- Add more lines and color to your art.
Trace your pencil drawing with a black crayon.
Write your name with a crayon and trace everything two or more times.
Adding little doodles and shapes with crayon in the background is fun too. - Paint your portrait.
Paint randomly and overlap colors just a bit so they stay nice and bright. Let dry.
- Finish with bold lines, just like Basquait’s work.
Use a black oil pastel to go over the main body shape. Press hard to make the line very bold and dark.
