Art for Kids: Romero Britto Photo Frame

I have to preface this project by saying that I had more fun making the sample than I’ve had making anything in a long time…which says an awful lot! As you may know, I’m in the middle of teaching a special art class at Little Crafter’s school. In each of the five sessions, we learn about an artist, pay attention to his/her unique style, then create our own masterpieces doing our best to imitate that style. So far, we’ve studied Georgia O’Keeffe and James Rizzi. This week, we took a look at the life and work of Romero Britto.

brittopin

In case you haven’t heard of him, Britto is a pop artist who uses vibrant colors and bold patterns to communicate hope and happiness through his art. He has worked with companies like Mattel, Coca-Cola, and Disney, and has had his art on display at the Super Bowl. I’d encourage you to do an online search for images he’s created; they’re so colorful and fun! After looking at examples of his work, each child was challenged to decorate a plain wooden photo frame using Britto’s style of bright colors, black lines, and a variety of patterns.

Materials:
– wooden photo frame {these were $1 each at Michaels}
– Elmer’s Painters paint markers
– DecoArt multi surface paints and paintbrushes
– BIC Mark-It permanent markers
– pencil

Here is the sample frame I created to give the kids and idea of how to take Britto’s basic style and make it their own.

brittosample

The first step was to use a pencil to sketch out the basic shapes they wanted on their frames, like hearts, hills, suns, flowers, letters, and more. Then, still working with a pencil, they divided the remaining blank space into geometric shapes.

Next, we used paint and Elmer’s Painters paint markers to fill in the sketched spaces with bright colors.

brittokaitlyn

The next step {and the most fun, in my opinion!} is to go back and fill in the spaces with lots of different patterns, like stripes, polka dots, stars, hearts, and more. We used permanent markers for this part, as well as a white Painters marker.

brittobells

Finally, we finished off the project by outlining each section with a black permanent marker.

brittomaddie

The kids were so proud of their creations, and many chose to use them as Mother’s Day gifts. What do you think? Does this look like a project the little folks you know would enjoy? I’ll tell you a secret…it’s just as fun for “big kids” too! In fact, I’m planning on making a canvas painting in this style to hang in my craft room. Stay tuned for that!

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