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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!