Here’s an easy Klimt patterns art lesson that asks students to add their own background to one of his more famous paintings.
Klimt Adele Pattern Drawing
Here’s an easy way to bring a Gustav Klimt art lesson to any classroom or home. All you need is a color print of the template, a few black markers, and a love of drawing patterns.
Student Art from Spain
A Quick Look at Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) was an Austrian artist who began his career painting murals and ceiling decorations for buildings. His earliest work was fairly realistic, but over time his style became much more imaginative and decorative.
Klimt became known for artwork that feels almost ornamental—filled with symbols, repeated shapes, and intricate details. His patterns grew more organic and flowing as his career developed, which connects closely to the Art Nouveau style.
The Project: Add Your Own Patterns to a Famous Klimt Portrait
In this lesson, students work with part of one of Klimt’s most famous paintings, “Adele Bloch-Bauer.” The template keeps Adele’s face and hands, but the rest of the painting is removed—so she’s surrounded by a blank background, ready for students to complete in their own way.
That “empty space” is the fun part. It gives students a high-success starting point while still leaving tons of room for creativity.
What Students Do
After printing the template, students:
• Lightly sketch in a simple body shape (using basic shapes makes this easy for all ages).
• Add a setting or background around the figure.
• Fill the clothing and background with as many different patterns as they can invent—lines, dots, spirals, zigzags, checkerboards, leaf shapes, and more.
Why This Works So Well
This project is all about contrast and detail. Using only black marker keeps things simple and gives students time to focus on their patterns instead of spending the whole class period coloring. The result is a bold, graphic artwork that feels “Klimt-inspired” while still being completely their own.
And best of all? Everyone ends up with a finished piece that looks impressive—because patterns do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Use the Button below to grab a PDF
Materials for a Klimt Art Project
- Black Sharpie Marker. Great for making a crisp outline to your drawing. Use them when you want your outline show up, but not be so heavy that it detracts from other things. *affiliate link
- Ultra Thin Sharpie Marker. For when you need to make fine lines. *affiliate link
- Drawing Paper. Don’t substitute it with copy paper or construction paper. The surface will get fuzzy, erasing might cause holes, and the colors will generally not look as bright. *affiliate link
- Pencil. The Ticonderoga brand are the most reliable, make nice dark lines when you need them, and are the easiest to erase. *affiliate link
