Students either love or hate self portraits, so i tried having them do a self portrait in the Modigliani style and they all loved it. Amedeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920) was a late-18th century European artist who never lived to see his success, but his paintings are some of my all-time favorites. He settled in Paris in 1906 and was friends with Picasso, Brancusi and Soutine. I love his portraits with elongated faces in soulful colors. Modigliani drew his faces in stretched proportions as his eyes usually sit near the top of the face. Our self portrait project works with facial proportions, color, shapes and space to create our elongated portrait. I always have the students do a quick self portrait with the correct proportions for comparison.
Materials: mirror,heavyweight paper, sketching pencil, sharpie and oil pastels to finish.
Step #1: Draw guidelines down the center and across the middle of the paper, Now lets add two more guidelines, one splitting the top half and another splitting the bottom half. Draw a oval from the center guideline as shown below.
Step #2: Look into the mirror and draw your eyes, nose and mouth Modigliani style. The eyes are high and more narrow, the nose is long and angular and the mouth is almost to the chin. Now add some ears.
Step #3: Draw your hair and add your neck Modigliani style. The neck starts at the mouth and goes to the lower guideline.
Step #4: Draw rounded shoulders and add your own details.
Step #5: Use oil pastels to finish your work. Have dome fun with background and your details.
