Most first grade classes are working on their self portraits. We looked at self portraits by Vincent VanGogh, Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence and Mary Cassatt. We discussed how each artist painted (technique) and looked to see what we could learn about each artist from his/her self portrait. I did a little demonstration on how to draw different facial features and then we practiced drawing a self portrait. Kids used a mirror to observe their faces, and I passed out some handouts for reference at tables.
During the next class, we painted our skin and hairstyles. I gave the kids 2 light skin tones and 2 darker skin tones along with black and white. They had to mix a more accurate skin color for themselves using the back of their hand for reference. I did help the sandy blondes and redheads that asked for help- otherwise I just let them experiment with color! I am probably the only person in the world who gets excited to see the dirty water buckets they bring back at the end of class. If they’re all different (like they were) that tells me that they really were experimenting and mixing accurate colors!
The 3rd class, we drew our features using chalk pastels. We talk a bit about shading and how to make features look as accurate as we can- always keeping in mind that they are only in 1st grade so it’s not going to look like a photograph. We don’t want it to look like a photo- we want it to look like a 1st grade drawing! If we wanted a photo, we’d just take one. Trying to draw it is much more challenging, but can be really fun. It’s important to me that they’re brave enough to try hard, but not so hung up on it looking perfect that they expect it to look uber-realistic. Drawing faces is HARD. Even when you know what to do, it’s really hard to execute well and capture someone’s personality. When kids take the time to really look at themselves and try to draw what they see- it’s amazing to me how they do capture little things about their features and personality. It’s so fun to see!
Once we get the faces drawn, the children can paint whatever type of background they’d like and then they’ll have to touch up the hair and we’ll be done!