Big & Bold Self-Portraits by Ks and 1s

For the past two weeks the kinders and first graders have been working on their big and beautiful self-portraits using chalk and/or oil pastels. These can be very messy materials but the children have persisted - despite fingerprints, smudges, and pink, chalky shirtsleeves.

Free Draw Selfies Make Me Smile

My students have been working furiously on completing their monochromatic self portraits inspired by Cassie Stephens. Thanks to her I have one more collaborative artwork to create that each student will be contributing to. Several of my classes' teachers have mentioned that they like their students to do self-portraits in the beginning of the year and I thought it was a great idea as an opportunity for me to get to know them as well as assess their skill levels since this is my first year with them. More on that later…

Modigliani Inspired Self Portraits

My middle school students worked hard on their oral presentations right before finals, so I wanted to give them art project that was engaging and fun, but also not "super challenge" as my 5-year-old would say. We looked at portraits by Modigliani and found that his style had particular traits: necks are elongated, faces are oval, eyes are almond-shaped, and noses are sometimes twisted. We used Photo Booth on my Mac to take a picture of each student which I then printed out in black and white. Students used these pictures for reference and crossed them with Modigliani's style for their final projects. They had a great time using oil pastel and exaggerating their features!

Aram