Portraits: Self and Otherwise

My K-6 students have just finished the drawing/self-portrait unit. (Some of them drew pictures of the person sitting next to or across from them instead, since we do not have mirrors enough for all of them.) These images range in complexity and artistic talent; however, I am surprised by how alike the pictures turned out to look like the intended person! The students don't tend to see this as easily as I, mostly due to the picture not looking like a photograph of a person, etc. The individual personalities definitely shine through though.

• Kindergarten: self-portraits with shapes (diamond, oval, circle, trapezoid, and triangle)
• 1st grade - fruits/veggies
• 2nd grade - fruits/veggies, crazy creatures (must have the same number of facial features, but can be located in a different place on the face, or nice)
• 3rd -5th grade - realistic

• 6th grade - cubist (nice line drawing of a self-portrait, then chop it up, relocate the pieces, redraw the lines, and color it in)

The most difficult part of the assignment for most of them was drawing big/using the majority of the paper. Why do they have a tendency to draw so small? The main objective was to help them realize where exactly parts of the face are located in relationship to the other parts of the face. The biggest part for the younger grades was to give themselves a forehead, instead of drawing the eyes right at the top of the circle/oval head.

The second part of the assignment was to write an artist statement. For the 1st - 3rd grade, I wrote up the majority of the statement and then they filled in part of one sentence with their opinion.

The 1st - 3rd grade prompt was:

"I am an Artist"

by __________

This is my self-portrait (portrait/crazy creature). It is a picture of myself (my friend/crazy creature) that I created. I used lines, shapes, space, and color. I like art because _______. (or) My favorite type of art is _______.

The 4th-6th graders used the following prompt:

"I am an Artist"

by _________

Describe your drawing/how you drew it.

One of the sixth graders said something like:

"This is a self-portrait. It's a good picture of me, because I look good." (something like that, lol!) He did do a very nice job of drawing his self-portrait and definitely has some talent with art. He read his statement to several of his friends and he and they thought it was funny, which it was!

Today, during the class before the above funniness with the prompt, one of my fifth grade boys drew a kiss (lips) on one of the girls self-portraits' cheek. She was complaining about it (not truly unhappily), so I said, he must like you then. Then he made a noise, she giggled, and he erased the "kiss."

The principal also came in to ask about how the self-portraits are coming along. He is so excited to have them hanging in the halls for SEP Conferences (parent/teacher) on Thursday. Tomorrow, I will deliver the students' portfolios to each teacher so that they can hang them up! He also emailed me back about the new art blog:

Elaine,

Yes! (that was in response to whether it was OK to have the art blog) The blog spot looks great and sounds like you've got the right idea on student photos and personal information. I think we're solid on the 4th and 5th grade balance of art and music (I'm having them sing one song twice each time they come in now). I think the before and after school instruction would be great (for recorder and ukulele lessons - these will start in January, PLUS, I'll get a small stipend for them (through 4-H)! I wasn't planning on that, but he doesn't want me to feel used or overburdened. How nice is that?). Draft up a plan that you can live with and then let's talk (I gave it to him today, that's when it was decided for January. We still need to find out how many students are interested).

Thanks for your efforts to better our arts program, (aw! so nice!)

(Principal)

It was a good and funny day in Room 120 today!