Self Portraits Reflect Inner Color

So when I thought of coming back to this project for day 2 I wasn't very excited. Portrait, Shmortrait! So I thought of ways to mix it up and took a risk by allowing kids to paint their skin a color of their choice as opposed to using skin tones. 

I started off by talking to the kids about an orange. Yes, an orange. I talked about how our skin is like an orange- it can be smooth, bumpy and shiny at times but all it really does is hold our stuff in. Eventually, like an orange our skin will get old and wrinkly! 

Then I peeled the orange and had kids smell it while talking about the good stuff inside; tangy, juicy, cool and sweet. Just like YOU! Then I made the connection, and I think the kids got it, that it's not our skin color that matters but the colors of our insides that shine the most. When I asked the kids what colors they were inside every color of the rainbow was called out!

Check out these gorgeous portraits! The kids were do proud displaying their inner color!

1st grade self portraits

So I decided to teach self portraits to first grade with the goal of teaching face proportion and realistic features. This was a good choice as it really helped kids become aware of their features, where they are placed, sizing and overall basic drawing techiniques. This project will probably take more than 2 visits. Here are some pictures of the pencil sketch stage. I LOVE how they experimented with big, toothy smiles. I also think they did an Awesome job ditching the triangle nose and trying out different nose drawing techniques! They are all so unique and different- my favorite part!