Who is Andy Warhol?

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was a famous artist who made colourful pictures of ordinary things like soup cans and Coca Cola bottles. He thought things you could buy in the supermarket were just as beautiful as trees and flowers.

Andy liked to draw as plainly and colourfully as possible, making lots of messy lines and colour splotches.

Even though he became a famous artist as an adult, Andy had a hard time at school and was bullied for being different. However, as he got older people loved him for being different. His paintings are now in museums all over the world.

Campbell’s Soup and Coca Cola

For many of his pictures, Andy used a special artist’s technique called ‘screen printing’ to print the same thing over and over again. He liked to print everyday things, like Campbell’s soup cans Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans and Coca Cola bottles, and printed lots of them in lines and rows.

Many of his pictures used this same technique to print a small picture again and again on a big canvas, sometimes in different colours.

Andy’s Trouble at School

Andy had a difficult time at school. When he was eight years old he caught a very unusual disease called ‘St Vitus’ Dance’. This illness made his whole body shake (or dance), and Andy felt very ill for several months.

Nowadays, we have medicine to treat St Vitus’ Dance, but when Andy was young the only treatment was bed rest. Andy spent a lot of time resting, and missed weeks of school.

After so much time off school, Andy had trouble fitting in. He was a quiet boy with pale skin and pale hair, and the other children bullied him for being different. Even though he was good at art, Andy didn’t join any art clubs at school because he was too shy.

However, as he got older and became a famous artist, Andy learnt to love his pale hair and even wore a bright silver wig. People thought it was great that he looked different.

Blotted Line Technique

Andy didn’t like his paintings to look too neat and tidy, so he made lots of messy lines and colour splotches. He even invented something called ‘the blotted line technique’ to make sure that his paintings had blurred edges and scratchy lines.

You can learn how to use the blotted line technique yourself – click here for our blotted line instructions and full details on how to enter our blotted line competition!