Facial Proportion with Romare Bearden

Discussion

Facial Proportion

Colors

warm and cool colors

complementary colors

neutral colors

Shape

collage

artist, Romare Bearden

His piece Mother and Child, 1968

on display at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

ARTIST: Romare Bearden, (1911-1988)

American, Collage 

• Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and died in New York City at the age of 76. 

• His life and art are marked by exceptional talent, encompassing a broad range of intellectual and scholarly interests, including music, performing arts, history, literature and world art. 

• Bearden was also a celebrated humanist, as demonstrated by his lifelong support of young, emerging artists.

• Recognized as one of the most creative and original visual artists of the twentieth century

• He experimented with many different mediums and artistic styles, but is best known for his richly textured collages, two of which appeared on the covers of Fortune and Time magazines, in 1968. 

• An innovative artist with diverse interests, Bearden also designed costumes and sets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and programs, sets and designs for Nanette Bearden's Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Facial Proportion: The face extends from the top of the head to your chin

This puts your eyes right in the Center of your face

The bottom of your nose falls in the Center of your eyes and chin

Your mouth is in the Center between your bottom of the nose and your chin

Let’s try this with newspaper

Step1: cut out a circle roughly the size of your hand from newspaper

Step2: fold your circle in half and cut out two ovals (eyes)

Step 3: fold your “chin” to your eye fold

Step 4: cut out a small triangle or circle

Step5: fold your “chin” to your nose fold

Step6: cut out a long oval for a mouth shape

Project: 

Step1: glue down your newspaper face to the card stock on the top and slightly right

Step2: Cut out a strip of newspaper and glue it along the bottom of your page

Step3: using yellow add some hair. This could be thickly applied

Step4: using your first complementary color add shape somewhere on your page

Step5: using the second complementary color fill in the background

• first: go around the shape
• second: paint over the newspaper strip but make sure you can see some of the newspaper through the paint
• third: fill the page with the color

Step6: mix your two complementary colors on your plate

Step7: somewhere on your painting add a neutral shape

Materials: 

paint in complementary colors

newspaper

glue sticks

Scissors

paper plates or trays for paint

paint brushes

water