Project #2: Olaf Hajek Portraits with Flora and Fauna

 

Olaf Hajek is a German artist/illustrator.  Hajek often uses flora and fauna (plants and animals) in his work.  His paintings and painted collages tend to be very brightly colored.  His people are often stylized (abstracted or not completely realistic). You can find more of Hajek's work on his instagram account and his website www.olafhajek.com.

Using Hajek's imagery is a wonderful way to learn facial proportions and about flora and fauna.

As you can see from looking at his paintings, Hajek often uses just the bust (shoulders, head and neck of the person) and a cloud of flora and fauna imagery on top of the head or on the beard.

Try creating a portrait bust similar to the ones that Olaf Hajek paints.  You can use facial proportions shown below to help you place the facial features. 3/4 views and profiles of the head also work well.  You may want to use a photos as  references for the face and the flora and fauna.

Hajek sometimes adds hand painted collage elements to his paintings.  Below are some of the  painted elements before he cut them out and attached them to the painting.

You can create this project with colored pencils or markers if you do not want to paint it.  Or you can make the project more complex by using acrylics or oil paints. 

Here are two student examples of this project painted with watercolor on paper.  We used our large paper vertically and started this painted collage with a xerox on the bottom that included the ruffled collar, shoulders and hand.  The students added a face and included at least one each of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects for our fauna and a variety of leaves, vines and flowers for our flora.  

The example painting below is in progress is acrylic on wood panel.  Some of my collage elements are placed on the painting but I am not ready to attach them yet.  Insects, birds and animals and other elements will be added.

Vocabulary: portrait bust, stylized, facial proportions, 3/4 facial view, profile facial view, flora and fauna, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, insects, species