Thinking & Imagining Self Portraits

I particularly love the infusion of Aboriginal and Canadian heritage in this artwork.  Great job!

Lesson Background:

Well, after a wonderful year off to look after my baby boy, I now find myself back in the busy exciting creativity of school again!  This year I am teaching a Year 5 class and they are a fantastic bunch of kids.  To start the new school year off we made these self-portraits.  The students were asked to show me what they've been thinking about and imagining, and to make their self-portrait artworks tell me about who they are.

Lesson Materials (per student):

• Photos of the students in a 'thinking pose' printed onto A4 paper and cut out (my students did this themselves)
• 1 sheet of A3 art paper (watercolour if possible)
• Watercolour paints (we used watercolour discs)
• Water containers
• Newspaper or covering to keep the tables clean
• A glue-stick
• 1 small fine paintbrush
• 1 thick paintbrush
• 1 black permanent marker

Lesson Steps:

1.  We looked at some sample artworks from some other blogs:
http://cappywrites.com/2010/11/25/im-accidentally-delusional/
http://carlisleartclass.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/use-your-brain.html
2.  We discussed what shapes, images, colours, lines and techniques (such as shading) looked most effective.
3.  We stuck our photo on the bottom corner of the A3 paper. 
4.  We used a black sharpie (permanent marker) to start drawing patterns, pictures, symbols and words that helped to represent ourselves.
5.  We coloured images in bright watercolour paints.
6.  Some of us chose to paint the background as well. 
7.  When dry, we went over the black marker in any places where the paint had covered the black marker.

 

Year 5, I am super impressed at your first artworks of the year!  Next time, I'll start to teach you how to create these blog posts yourselves.  Well done, 5B!

Year 5 Artworks: