Caravaggio Art Project 

Caravaggio is one of the great masters of art. It would take years to learn how to replicate his style, but we can break it down and tackle one of the fundamentals of his artwork. Caravaggio is known for using foreshortening to give an impression of movement and life in his paintings. 

You can use our Mammoth Memory technique here on foreshortening to help you.

Find a good reference image of a person with their arms out to the sides.

Break the figure down into very basic shapes. 

Once you're happy with the shapes, imagine turning them in 3D to make the arms appear foreshortened.

Refine your sketch and then add details to give the figure personality and make it your own.

Finally line, colour and shade your figure.

Caravaggio Art Project 2

Caravaggio often painted scenes from the Bible. In this project we will paint an image in homage to his painting of David and Goliath. 

In order to get a reference image, ask a friend to pose with you. Get them to wear dark clothing and a scarf or polo-neck jumper to give the look of a severed head and, if possible, use a dark sheet as a backdrop and hold a toy sword. Get another friend to take a photo.

Next, print out your photo and draw a grid over the top using the Mammoth Memory grid method.

Once your photo and canvas or paper have been gridded up, sketch out your picture in pencil, leaving out your friend's body to make it look like a severed head!

Caravaggio used oil paints, his work was hyper-realistic, and it took years to perfect. However, for this exercise, use whatever medium you enjoy using the most, whether that be acrylics, watercolour or coloured pencils.

Colour the figures – don't worry about making them perfect, but try to replicate the dark and light chiaroscuro for which Caravaggio was so famous. The more you practise, the better you'll become!

Finally, add a dark background to really help the light stand out and the dark blend into the background.

Caravaggio