We started a school wide self-portraiture project at Dyer this week (Kaler will begin this project next week) We watched a short
video showing famous artists' self-portraits morphing one into the next. Unfortunately, there are a couple flaws with this video: names don't always synch up correctly with the self-portraits and the creator of the video did not include any female artists, however the students seemed to enjoy seeing the various styles of self portraits.
The students will be creating their self portraits in several steps. First they will observe their own faces in a mirror and try to see their reflection as they have never seen it before (just a combination of shapes, lines and letters). They will draw their head shape, eyes, nose, mouth, ears with light pencil outlines. I demonstrate using a very relaxed fluid motion to try to capture the oval shape of the head. I show them several tips and tricks to use when drawing the facial features to help their drawings look more realistic.
When each student has completed his/her pencil outlines, he/she will go over the best lines with a black sharpie. In the next class we will talk about community and how the different character traits that each individual has makes the school community a vibrant, collaborative, caring place. Each student will select three of the words from this list of character traits. They will cut out the words and glue the words anywhere on their self portrait (as long as they don't cover up the facial features they have drawn so well).
In the following lessons we will experiment with watercolors and paint on top of the outlines and words. When all of the portraits are completed, we will talk about the purpose of public art displays before arranging the self-portraits into a class "quilt" that will be displayed in the hall.
Stay tuned for photos!!
