Joan MiróJoan MirÓ was a famous surrealist artist from Barcelona, Spain who became popular during the early 20th Century. He intentionally made his artwork to appear as if a child had painted them and challenged the established conventons of fine art. This painting is called The Lightning Bird Blinded by Moonfire and was completed in 1955 (oil on cardboard). Does the title give you clues about the objects in the painting?

Practice Drawing Different Line Types & QualitiesTrace, Copy and Draw!

1. Print out and place the copy of Miro’s artwork into a plastic page protector.2. Find, name and TRACE all of the lines that you see with a dry erase marker. What types of lines are they?3. COPY the lines onto another whiteboard or drawing paper with pencil. Change the quality of the lines: make some thicker and some thiner.4. DRAW your own abstract line artwork. Use a pencil or black marker and make ten dots ran-domly spaced out on a piece of drawing paper. Connect the dots with different types of lines: straight, wavy, zigzag, curved, diagonal, vertical, spiral, etc. Add more lines that look similar to Miro’s. Look carefully at your drawing. Use your imagination and see if there are any hidden objects emerging. 5. Trace over your pencil lines with a black permanent marker or black crayon.6. Be creative and paint with watercolor or color with any other medium of your choice.

© 2019 Brook Mesenbrink

The Lightning Bird Blinded by Moonfire, Joan MirÓ 1955.