Wednesday, November 4, 2015

In the Art Room: I Ain't Gonna Paint No More Portraits

Hey, y'all! Just popping in to share with you some selfies that my firsties and second graders have been working on. All of my classes are in the middle of Self-Portrait Land with our collaborative project being our It's Okay to be Different mural (which I'm hoping to have up and share with y'all by next week). That project really introduced the kids to color mixing and basics of self portrait making with painting and collage. So they were ready to handle these colorful and crazy self portraits.  
In this project, we covered more color theory, color mixing, the proportions of the face and collage. It was a fun endeavor and one that I'm sure I'll be doing again in years to come. My art classes are 30 minutes in length with my younger students so each portion of the lesson I had to break down in small bites. 
The project began with a group of helpful fourth graders that come in each morning and help a poor hot mess of an art teacher out. They sorted through all of my washable markers and found the that were on their last marker-y leg, so to speak. I soaked 'em over night in a cup of water and the next day, placed the warm colors of "marker juice" on one set of tables and the cool on another. 
The kids could decide what color they'd like for their background and commence splatter painting. We had chatted briefly about Jackson Pollock and watched a short clip of him in action. The kids were super excited about this process and very curious about the making of marker juice. Y'all don't even know how many donated markers the kids have brought in for the cause.
We MIGHT have ended up with just a coupla rainbow freckles with all that splattering. 
The following art class, I read the book The Colors of Us. Because of our color mixing background, the kids were familiar with the basics of how to create secondary colors with primary. For creating the unique flesh tone of each child, the kids were given red, yellow, brown, white and black. We talked about the various flesh colors in the book and how the young girl in the book created each one. Then the kids put that knowledge to work and painted a piece of 9" X 12" sheet of paper that was their flesh color. 
The following art class, we used that flesh colored piece of paper to draw our self portraits. We talked about how the head is shaped like an upside down egg. The students traced a head-shaped template, drew a neck and did a little guided drawing with me. I had mirrors out so the kids could look at themselves as we drew. 
From there, we cut out our bald self portraits and glued them down to our splatter painted background. Using mirrors and our color-mixing knowledge, we painted our hair. I loved seeing all the different hair styles! 

We have been reading the book I Ain't Gonna Paint No More (which is so much fun to read, the kids adore this book!) and we talked about how sad we'd be if we didn't get to paint anymore! Each of the kids then chose a super messy and painty piece of paper to create their shirt. 
While they worked on that, I called them by table to come and see me to do one last crazy thing: mix paint on our hands!
 I had three trays of the primary colors set up. When the kids came up to me, they had to tell me what secondary color they wished to mix and, as a great post-assessment test, they had to figure out what primary colors to use! One hand went in one primary, the other hand in another, rub those hands together like you are putting on lotion and VIOLA! Secondary color hands! These were then promptly printed on paper. The best part was each kid gave me a great big ole painty high-five when they were finished and heading to the sink. 
Our final step was to cut out our hands (without cutting off digits), glue 'em down and sign our name. I can't wait to hang these happy faces in the halls at school. 

What are some of y'all's fave books to read when teaching self portraits in the art room? 
 photo signature_zpsd10b3273.png

12 comments:

  1. My favorite book to read with my first graders when doing self-portraits is "When Pigasso Met Mootisse." We use a 12x18 piece of drawing paper and fold it in half. Then we do a self portrait on one side, and a portrait of our best friend on the other side. We also talk about how the two character's art looks different, even when they paint the same things, and how everyone's art looks different, and we like it that way. It is a great book for talking about friendship, what it means to be a good friend, and not saying ugly things about other peoples art. This is my second year covering this with this lesson, and I am sure I will do it again next year. Thanks for sharing your lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adorable, Cassie!!! So cute! I'm short on time but LOVE teaching with, "ISH", by Peter Reynolds; "Mixed Up Chameleon" by Eric Carle, Why Is Blue Dog Blue, by George Rodrigue and so many more books I use for lessons! I want to do this lesson you shared it is very sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I adore everything about these!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Are the facial features done in oil pastel?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Silly me! I should have mentioned that, duh!

      Delete
  5. Anonymous2/28/2016

    I love the paintings! How long did it take to make the marker juice?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We just let it sit overnight...or several days. It starts to drain the juice almost immediately :)

      Delete
  6. Heather3/10/2016

    Love this lesson! I was just thinking I was bored with my current self portrait lesson and I love reading books with the kiddos. These are fun and allow for each kid's individuality. :) I can't wait to try it! Ps.... wherever do you find time to create such wonderful posts? You must secretly be wonder woman!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What age level did you do this art project with? Wanting to do a self-portrait with first & second graders, but not sure if any of this is too much for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did this project with my first and second graders! They can handle the scandal. I see that age group for 30 minutes at a time so I break it down into bite sized pieces.

      Delete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for the inspiration to shake up my self portrait lesson!! Here's our version - we used the painted paper for our art shirts only.

    http://thisoldartroom.blogspot.com/2016/09/1st-grade-self-portraits.html

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate each and every one :)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.