Scrambling to capture a three second pose.

 I am in awe of people who can take charcoal in hand and zip, flick, swish, three strokes and they've captured the human figure. During a recent figure drawing class I struggled to loosen up. Poses were held for three seconds, so there wasn't much choice! The teacher, witnessing my struggles, instructed me to use the side of my charcoal to blacken the entire paper. Then using just the eraser, I was told to 'find' the highlights. This was a fun exercise. Instead of defining the figure with line, I was freed to see the form. I'm excited to try this approach with my own students next term.

Drawing with eraser.

Self-Portrait

In this self-portrait my grim expression reminds me of old photographs in which the subjects, stiff and formal, appear to glare, lips pursed in anger, at the camera. Rather than capturing ill humor these photos reveal the discomfort and effort exerted to hold a pose for the duration of the long exposure time needed to record the image. That's pretty much my experience trying to draw my reflection in a mirror and hold a pose simultaneously!

Backward Portraits: A Fun Opening Lesson for Back-to-School

First day of school - I stood at the door to the art room greeting each student as they entered. Lots of big smiles, a few too shy to meet my eyes, high-fives from last year's 7th graders back for another dose of messy fun. Under his breath, as he walked in, head down, a new student, voicing what a good handful of others were thinking, "I hate art. I can't draw."

Always my first challenge - overcoming the fear and dread of performing so visually for all to see the shortcomings, failings, lack of this or that. Possibly the worst position in which to place a budding, young adult and the quickest route to behavior issues in the classroom.

A truth about teens - they are hair obsessed! For our opening project, part of a two week unit on portraiture, we drew "backwards" portaits in oil pastel and watercolor wash. An easy, no-fail drawing lesson focusing on the art elements of SHAPE and LINE.

After the Demo - Talk and laughter filled the room as kids began their drawings. "My head's a square!" "I've got a grape head."...Or the line in their hair, "It goes straight out in every direction." "I've got a spiral from my crown!"

The boy who walked in hating art? Not sure he loves it...yet, but as he walked out he called, "see ya tomorrow, Ms. Wilson." I glanced toward the doorway to see the back of his head... held a bit higher going out.

You can find several back-of-the head portrait lessons in a variety of media at Artsonia.
On Monday we'll begin a self-portrait project involving digital photographs and drawing, and we'll learn about the photo portraits of the 19th century pictorialist, Julia Margaret Cameron: Fantastic Photos

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!

A Frame of Reference

To display a digital photographic self-portrait as an end-of-year project students created these simple autobiographical frames with white colored pencil on black construction paper.
I came up with this extension to the self-portrait project as a kind of "down-time" activity to manage the many classroom interruptions we faced the last two weeks as different groups of students left intermittently for end-of-the year events, making direct teaching a challenge! I worried they might find it somewhat tedious.
So, I was quite surprised that students begged to work on this project even when we all were there. I think they enjoyed both the relaxing pace of the activity as well as the challenge of illustrating the 8 'loose' categories I gave them. These included: 1 name, 2 wishes, hopes or dreams, three characteristics about yourself, four places you'd like to visit, five important relationships, six activities you enjoy , seven foods you like to eat, and eight favorite books, movies, songs, bands, and/or plays or musicals. I was also surprised at how much discussion the activity fostered as students shared and compared their interests.
I suppose self-portrait activities in art classes as well as autobiography, memoir projects and journaling in language arts classes are so popular for this age group because, as many teachers know, middle school students are most comfortable with what they think they know best: themselves and their peers. I hope these autobiography projects help them gain self-understanding while also questioning assumptions about others.
For this project I pushed the desks together into large seating groups for 8, so that different social groups had to mix a bit. It was heartwarming to see kids from different groups comment positively on each others' interests and abilities. As a frame of reference understanding one's own skills and interests can help students value the interest and skills of others.

Self-Portraits

Looking for a fun end of year art activity? Check out the National Gallery of Art classroom activities. I am fortunate to have a computer lab to take my classes to now and then. Yesterday I prepared my students for the NGA Self-Portrait lesson by playing a youtube slide show of Vincent Van Gogh paintings set to, of course, the Don McLean song, "Starry Night." Then students went to the NGA site and with a worksheet to guide them, learned about Van Gogh and the genre of self-portraiture.

Today students talked excitedly about the digital photographs we will take over the next few days - see the Self-portrait lesson on the NGA site. Because my teaching schedule is interrupted by lots of special end of year activities I needed an easy, self-directed art activity that the student could work on in between field trips, band performances, field days and waiting for access to the digital cameras. I came up with the idea of picture "frames" for the self-portraits.

Students used white colored pencil on black construction paper. They were given a list of 8 items to include in their frame, for instance: Two hopes, wishes or dreams, three personal characteristics, four activities they enjoy, five places they'd like to visit and so on. I told them they could use words, images, designs, symbols, fancy lettering and so on to complete their frames. So far, they're coming out great. Each frame is so different, and since it's basically doodling, the kids are having a great time, talking while they draw, sharing with each other the images and words they've chosen to represent themselves. I'll try to put a photo of some frames up on the blog in a few days, so check back!

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.