Famous Paintings Recreated Using Non-Traditional Art Materials

Published: February 4, 2013

Copying master paintings is a traditional way for students to learn about making art. You are forced to look really closely at the piece you are copying in order to get all of the colors, shading, shapes, etc. correct. Established artists sometimes are inspired to try their hand at recreating works of art, sometimes using very surprising materials!

Faber Castell recreated Munch’s The Scream made with thousands of their colored pencils as the medium (the actual pencils themselves.)

Colored Pencil The Scream

Here’s another Faber Castell piece. They commissioned artist Chan Hwee Chong to draw pieces including the Mona Lisa in his style, using their pens. Look closely- he uses one spiral line to draw each piece, and has to start over from the beginning if he makes a mistake.

MonaLisa2

 

By Kristen Cumings, this redo of The Girl With a Pearl Earring is made entirely of jelly beans. I wonder how many she popped into her mouth as she was making this.

Jellybean Girl With a Pearl Earring

 

Y&R Interactive advertising agency from Israel for Magimix kitchen appliances: Food Picasso.

Vegetables Picasso

 

 

Here’s a balloon American Gothic by Airigami (Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle).

balloon american gothic

 

Lee Kyu-Hak makes artwork with small pieces of wood wrapped in colorful newsprint. This is his version of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

Sunflowers

 

Another candy painting! This Marilyn Monroe piece, emulating Andy Warhol’s portraits, is made using Gummy Bears. Artist Johannes Cordes  uses about 3 tons of gummy bears a year. Ack.

Gummy Bear Marilyn

Ask your kids if they recognize these pieces- do they like the idea of copying a famous painting using weird materials? Maybe they can look around the house and find something (noodles, rubber bands, dog hair) they think would be fun to make art with. Perhaps they’d rather try their hand at something like these dresses I featured by teenage artist Ella DiGregorio.

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