Reality and Fantasy with Digital Photos and Drawing

Photo retouch self-portraits are a great way to introduce middle school students to digital photography and mixed-media. I am also able fit a little art history into my curriculum by bringing in an old turn-of-the century hand colored photograph. Finally, it is a stress-free introduction to self portraiture. Rather than worrying about not having the drawing skills to render an exact likeness of themselves, the use of photographs frees the students to be imaginative in creating their backgrounds.
Students work with a partner to pose with a fantastic environment in mind. Then they print their photographs on the lightest setting so that the image is barely there. This gives the realistic feeling of photography but provides a clean 'canvas' for working back into the image to create a fantasy environment.
This lesson provides an excellent opportunity to teach some drawing basics. We talk about how to hold the pencil at an oblique angle to create smooth surfaces. We talk about shadows and how to build them up with layers of colored pencil, and how to build the color up by using a variety of hues.
In case you're worried about equipment, I am able to do this lesson with classes of almost 30 students, using just one digital camera, one computer and a very basic black ink printer.