This week, Year 5–6 students explored Julian Opie–style portrait drawing by creating self-portraits inspired by his distinctive approach. Rather than drawing detailed facial features such as eyes, noses, and mouths, students focused on expressing their identity through simplified side-profile portraits that highlighted their hairstyles, clothing, and overall silhouette, in the style of Julian Opie’s work.
Students used photographs of themselves as reference, carefully observing shapes and outlines. Some students chose to place tracing or film paper over their printed photos to help capture clean lines and proportions, while others drew directly from observation. With extra time, students also experimented with creating pop art–inspired Julian Opie–style faces, further exploring bold lines and simplified forms.
Through this activity, students developed their skills in observation, visual simplification, and personal expression, while gaining a deeper understanding of contemporary portraiture and Julian Opie’s artistic style.
