Today I will be drawing Keith Haring. Keith Haring was well known for his pop art style
and you may recognize his simplified icons of people and movement
as usual I'm going to be drawing the basic shapes so a circle some triangles here and there
and I'm going to roughly put in his features his eyes nose mouth etc
here are some fun facts you may or may not know about Keith Haring he was born on may 4th 1958
in reading Pennsylvania he learned his basic cartooning skills from his father and from the
pop culture around him like Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney and now that I've done this rough sketch
I'm going to create new line art on top of this layer by creating a new layer
while he initially went to school for graphic art at ivy school of professional art he soon
realized he didn't want to be a commercial artist and dropped out after two semesters
he studied on his own for a while and eventually had a solo exhibition at the Pittsburgh arts and
crafts center in 1978. later in that year he enrolled at SVA New York school of visual arts
he found a community of alternative artists that weren't bound by the museum and art
gallery systems he became friends with kenny scharf and Jean Michel Basquiat
and eventually began to participate and organize events with this alternative arts group at varying
venues one being club 57 herring while ultimately a very innovative and progressive artist also took
inspiration from artists such as jean du buffet pia alaskinsi william barros brown ginsen and
robert henry's manifesto the art spirit which was about the fundamentals of an independent artist
these inspired him to create his own graphic style that solely focused on line work
christoph vladimirov java chef was also an inspiration to herring
specifically his piece running fence which gave him the want to create truly public artwork
now that I'm done my clean line work I'm going to be creating a new layer underneath this layer
to do the coloring you may notice the colors I'm choosing are different from the reference image
and that's because I am referencing colors from different images I found of Keith Haring on google
as an SVA student Haring experimented with performance video installation and collage
though he stayed faithful to drawing as his primary artistic medium one day herring became
interested in using the matte black paper that was posted on top of unused advertising panels as
a medium and with white chalk would draw on top of them throughout the subway system
sometimes he'd make up to 40 drawings a day and commuters would begin to
recognize and engage with him while he drew herring himself said that the subway
became somewhat of a laboratory for him where he would experiment with his work
now that I'm done the base colours I'm going to start shading in with darker colors a little
tip I have for you is to not shade with black instead choose the skin color that you put for
the base color and then make it darker but saturated you can see it in the color wheel
from 1980 to 1989 herring gained international recognition and participated in numerous group
and civil exhibitions his first solo exhibition was in the west beth painter's base in 1981.
the next year his solo debut was at the tony chafrazi gallery which was immensely popular and
highly acclaimed other things he participated in within the early 80s included animation
for the spectacular billboard in times square designing sets and backdrops for theaters and
clubs developing watch designs for swatch and an advertising campaign for absolute vodka during all
of this he still created murals worldwide herring spent the majority of his time on public works
throughout his career his mural crack is whack of 1986 has become a landmark along New York's fdr
drive he created over 50 public works between 1982 to 1989 and dozens of cities around the world
many of these were for charities hospitals children's daycare centers and orphanages
in 1988 herring was diagnosed with aids leading him to create the key tearing foundation
its goal was to raise funding and imagery to aids organizations and children's programs
he spent the last years of his life raising awareness and generating activism about aids
while his career was brief it was intense participating in over 100 group and solo
exhibitions and was the subject of over 40 newspaper and magazine articles in 1986
alone he participated in collaborations with a wide range of individuals
such as Madonna grace jones bill t jones William barrow timothy Leary jenny Holzer
Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol and now that I've done that I'm going to be coloring in the background
I'll be replicating his style of artwork in the background since this is an homage to him
at the age of 31 herring died of aids-related complications on February 16 1990. his memorial
service had over a thousand attendees to this day herring's work is still widely recognized
and loved by a modern audience with modern apparel brands such as Uniqlo urban outfitters
and adidas using his work to create clothing lines inspired by his work
he created works that expressed universal ideas about birth death love and war with
an intensely direct and simplistic approach that was and still is very appealing to the public eye
and after some post-production here it is the final piece if you enjoyed this video give it a
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