Pixelated Color Study in Oils


Portrait by Alice Neel

You will research a well-known artist from the list provided. You will Google Image search the artist’s work and choose one of their paintings with colors that appeal to you. In Photoshop, you will then pixelate the image and crop a 4x4” square that abstracts the original image. You will practice color matching and mixing with oil paints and paint the grid of colors on wood panel that is coated with gesso.

  1. Find an image from the following list of painters (I also have a bigger list…ask me about it):

-Faith Ringgold
-Vincent Van Gogh
-Kevin Red Star
-TC Cannon
-Paul Cezanne
-Jacob Lawrence
-Benny Andrews
-Georges Seurat
-Emily Carr
-Kehinde Wiley
-Edward Hopper
-Georgia O’Keeffe
-Reginald Baylor
-Diego Rivera
-Claude Monet
-Frida Kahlo
-Henri Rousseau
-Henry Mattise
-Gustav Klimt

  1. Drag your image to the Desktop and then open in Photoshop.
  2. In Photoshop, unlock the background of your layer.
  3. Go to Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic
  4. Zoom out so you can see your entire image and then change the cell size to 20 or more. Your image should be quite abstracted. Press OK.
  5. Select the Crop Tool and on your upper horizontal toolbar, enter Width: 4 inches and Height: 4 inches.
  6. Crop a square on a portion of your image. These are the tiles you will be mixing. You should have about
    12 tiles x 12 tiles.
  7. Double click inside the square to confirm the crop.
  8. Save the file to your student folder. File > Save As > yournamePixels.jpeg
    Make sure your file format is a JPEG!!!
  9. Now, open a Word Document and place both your original photo AND your new pixelated photo in the document. They should each take up roughly half the page.
  10. File > Print ….. Select “Secure Print on Apollo”
  11. Go to Printer Properties > Quality > Select Color > change to “Auto Color”
  12. Press OK and then Print. You will need to go to the Library or Mr. Ross’ room to print your image.

Artist Research

  1. Artist Name: ______
  2. Where did this artist work/live? ______
  3. What time period did thisartist work in? ______
  4. Realistic (representational) - Abstract-Objective - Abstract-Non Objective
  5. What medium did this artist primarily work in? (oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolors)
  1. What is this artist most known for? This could be a certain style, subject matter, or both. Tell me in a paragraph what made this person famous.
  1. Tell me one other interesting fact that you learned about this artist.