Kinderhaus Day 2: Self Portraits

I LOVE teaching self portraits to Kindergarteners. Mostly because I love seeing them looking in the mirrors and recording how they see themselves.

I start by defining and comparing. "If a portrait is picture of a person, then a self portrait is a picture I make of me." Mona Lisa is a portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci, but this picture of me that I drew is not only a portrait, but my self portrait.

Of course technology has sort of helped us redefine self portraiture... a student raised his hand and said a self portrait is a "selfie." So yes, today we drew selfies.

To help show the proportions of the face, I like to actually take a selfie of me that day (same clothes!) and print out a few copies.

Color is SO much better, but only the B&W printer was working today. 

I keep one copy as is.

I keep another to be able to draw on.

And the fun part: I cut out my head in the last copy. This enables me to fold it along my eyes to prove that eyes are actually in the center of one's face!  You can also fold it vertically to show the symmetry. I once had a college professor literally draw charcoal lines on her face and it BLEW MY MIND. I didn't do that for kindergarten, but it's something to consider. Instead, I draw on this picture.

a little wrinkled by day's end

I think cutting and folding my head really helps illustrate how our eyes, ears, noses and mouth line up on our face. We all look unique, yet this map is pretty much the same on everyone.

I drew my face on a blank sheet of paper for all of them to see my thinking as I mapped it out on paper.
[I'll update this page on Monday with my drawing-- I forgot to take a picture of it!]

I showed a couple of well known examples: Frida Kahlo, Rembrant, and Beauford Delaney.

Before we left the rug, we looked at the different colors of the skin in Delaney's painting... blue, green, red. Not just the typical "skin color" we think we see.

I showed how you can blend colors with color pencils (advanced, I know!) The drawing choice materials that I put out were pencils, color pencils, markers, and crayons. 

Some students drew a bust like my example and this one of Delaney. Others drew full bodies. I love seeing the differences. 

Here are some examples of student work:

Prop a mirror on a mini easel. This student also asked for my hand drawn self portrait example to look at. 

Sharing materials. Student at right literally drew in her horizontal center "eye line"

Full body with fingers and toes.

Mapping out proportions of a body. (What does it mean that it's not connected, I wonder.)

"I drew numbers in my brain because I'm good at math."

"I'm facing that way, but I'm looking this way."
At the demo, I talked about how hair comes over the top of the head even without bangs.
I pointed out this girl's bangs and drew them into my drawing. She tried it in her drawing.

Finding proportions and practicing blending with color pencil. Yes, he's five! 

Amazing work, huh!? And it's only day 2 in art!!