Watercolour Self-Portraits Grade 1

 Lesson Background:

And so we begin a new school year here in Australia, and this year I have a delightful Year 1 class.  We made these self-portraits on the first day of the year.

Lesson Materials (per student):

1 sheet A4 white art paper

watercolour palette 

1 thin and 1 thicker paintbrush

a water pot

a lead pencil

a black sharpie

Lesson steps:

1.  We began by drawing a cross shape in the middle of the page lightly with lead pencil, and then drew the oval shapes of our faces around them.

2.  I modelled how to draw different sized and shaped facial features on the board step-by-step and the children followed along on those that were closest to their own facial features.

3.  We used watercolour paint to paint the drawings.

4.  Once dry, we outlined in black sharpie.

Year 1 Artworks:

Sebastian used a very light copy of a photograph of himself and painted over the top.  
His teaching assistant then outlined his picture with a sharpie.