Painted Digital Portraits

Here's a fun, easy, summer art project you can do at home with children of all ages. Start by taking a digital photographic portrait and print it out in black and white, or enlarge on a photo copier a portait on 8 x 10 paper. You child's school picture might be just perfect to use for this project!

Use acrylic or tempera paint or keep it simple with colored pencil. Inexpensive acrylic paint is available in small bottles at your local craft store. Be sure to have a variety of brush sizes on hand for large areas and detail work. Choose a palette of complementary colors such as green and red, blue and orange or yellow and purple to create visual contrast. Vary the brush strokes from smooth to bumpy, or impasto, type styles to increase visual interest.

Use the photograph as a guide to begin painting or 'coloring in' a self-portrait. Interesting effects can be obtained by leaving some areas such as the eyes or mouth unpainted so that the photographic information shows through. Reassure your artists at home that the final portrait does not need to be 'realistic.' That's the fun of painting!

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.