Chuck Close Grid self Portrait

Every year I try to do several self portraits of the kids. It is a good way to get observation as well as some art history involved. Click here for previous self portraits

This week, with my 4th-6th graders, I did a project inspired by contemporary American artist Chuck Close, who is known for his larger than life portraits using a grid and a pixelated look. He had learning disabilites and also had a medical condition that confined him to a wheelchair.

To check out all the art photos click here. 

Here are some nice videos about Chuck Close.

So, to begin with, I photographed each student and went home and applied a 12x18 grid over the photo.

With this gridded picture of themselves, they had to make a grid on a 12x18 piece of paper. This proved to be just as difficult as anything. Thankfully, the kids are learning about grids and math factors with their teacher Ms. Kinser, so this reinforced it.  Getting this right was a challenge and tested their patience and left/right brain sensibility.

Once the tears had been wiped away from the grid, we went on to transferring the major lines of their face. My goal had been to get to color the first class, but the intro, grid and starting line work took my allotted hour, so I will update next time!

I am very happy with how many of the kids really took to this. Even the ones who struggled, put in a  good fight, and the end result of the PROCESS will make their brains stronger.

Warhol Zig Zag portraits

This project was kind of a three-in-one lesson

1. self portrait with pencil
2. color theory
3. Pop Art/optical illusion

I was inspired by projects that I have seen that involve doing two similar but opposite drawings and then slicing them and putting them on accordian-folded paper.

I told the kids about Andy Warhol and his many technicolor portraits of celebrities. I also walked them thru drawing a face. We had already done an eye earlier in the year. The next step was to photocopy their pencil drawing, so they would have identical copies, and also not ruin their nice pencil drawing.

Once they had the two faces, they used colored markers to color the different parts of the face. My goal was to have complimentary colors like green/red hair, blue/orange skin, purple/yellow eyes. Then they had to fold/cut their portraits into 4 vertical strips, and alternate them on a larger piece of paper that could be accordian folded.

Drawing the Eye

With the older kids, we did an exercise in drawing the eye. They used pencil, and the goal was to breakdown the parts of the eye and try to draw what they saw in the mirror and not what they think an eye looks like...paying special attention to shading, shape and light/dark.

Self Portrait K-1 style!

I did not do this project, but Mrs. Dillon, the main K-1 teacher made these darling crayon self portraits with the kids the first week of school. Too good to not post! She has a the doiley "frame" copied and the kids fill it in with themselves. 

Self portrait in paper: an old standby

At the risk of being repetitive, I did a lesson this week that is an old standby of mine. The reason I did it was that is such a great window into the soul of these kids! A simple self portrait is transformed by how they cut, tear and glue some pretty simple ingredients!  It is amazing how much personality comes thru when you see these!

Self portraits with paper

The luxury of having a new batch of kindergarteners who have not taken art from me before, is that I get to revisit "ye olde arte projects of the past." Having taught for three years now, I have quite a few that I would repeat and this is one of them!

Here is a link to the project from 2 years ago!

No matter how simple or complex, it is amazing how distinctive and representative some simple cut and torn pieces of construction paper can be. Even Kinders can make their self portrait portray themselves.

I have the kids pick background color and then some skin and hair color. They cut the face as a circle (or close) and then they can tear bits for hair. Add some eyes, nice mouth etc...

Week 3: Modigiliani Self Portraits

I like to do several self portraits each year, usually in different media.  It gives the kids a measuring stick as to their art improvement and makes a great piece to keep.

This week we did self portraits in the style of Modigliani, the Italian painter know for he exaggerated and elongated faces.  The distortion inherant in this style is perfect for the imperfect manner in which most kids draw, so perfection is not the goal, but expression is.  Often this lesson is harder to teach then straightforward art.

The class was pretty simple. I gave each kid a piece of black paper and oil pastels. The only other rules were to make the head and/or neck distorted.

Week 27: Self Portrait in pencil

This is one of those projects that can be repeated several times a year and be a window into your child's world at that moment.  At the begining of the year I had the kids do a self portrait in torn colored paper.
September's self portrait lesson

Come Spring, its time to revisit, but with a different medium, and a different lesson.  Kids naturally like to draw, but they also naturally do not have a good idea of how to draw an accurate face.  So in this lesson I gave the kids a soft pencil, eraser, and mirror along with some nicer paper.

On the baord I drew a step-by-step face starting with a large circle, then a middle line and lines for eyes, nose, moith etc. Then a tutorial on the various parts of the face.


Here is a real nice You-Tube video of an artist doing just that:
How to draw a a face video

This is a not an easy concept, and kids, no mater how old, still want to draw circles for eyes that are way up on the top of the head and a hooked nose and exaggereated mouth, but if you do it step by step they get the hang of it. Plus doing it every year will help with the practice.



Where they can personlize the drawing is in the shading and air and other details.  The soft pencil is great for smudging and adding realism to the drawing.

Week 1: Self Portraits in cut paper

I wanted to start the year off with some basics, and a self portrait is a great tool to gauge a child's art skills and interest. Plus you can compare with older and future images.  This was a pretty simple project. I just had them pick out paper, cut, rip and glue. Some drawing at the end.  I was really amazed at the ability to capture likeness in many of these.  They also did things I had not told them to do, like make their portrait in profile or use odd colors for skin etc.  A lot of them tore the paper for the hair which turned out great. Another interesting thing was that the younger kids seemed faster and much more uninhibited than the older kids who were more perfectionists.

K-2 portraits:



3rd and 4th grade portraits: