I recently hosted my very first Second Saturday workshop, Draw Like Keith Haring, at Art Enables in Washington, DC. Art Enables is a gallery and vocational arts program dedicated to creating opportunities for artists with disabilities to make, market, and earn income from their original artwork. Learn more about the workshop.
An art teacher friend of mine gave me the excellent idea of creating Keith Haring-style stencils for participants to trace. The simplicity and affordability of this activity make it perfect for artists of all ages and skill levels.
Getting Started
To create my stencils, I drew various arms, legs, heads, and torsos on brightly colored cardstock paper. For added variety, I made several Haring-style dog, cat, mouse, and person heads. After cutting out the many pieces, I used metal brads (from Amazon) to assemble my stencils. Each stencil was approximately 10″ tall after assembly.
Workshop Setup
I stocked each table at the workshop with the following:
- Instructional PDF
- White cardstock paper, 11×17″ or larger
- Pencils
- Erasers
- Markers
- Crayons
- Optional: Ruler for drawing horizon lines
- Optional: Glitter glue for outlining
Let’s Make Some Art
As guests arrived for the workshop, I showed each of them the instructional PDF and went over the process. Each participant followed these steps to create their own Keith Haring masterpiece:
- Choose one or more stencils.
- Arrange the stencils on the paper.
- Trace each stencil lightly in pencil.
- Outline the pencil drawing with a marker.
- Color, and enjoy!
Randie Hovatter 