How do artists see things differently? What is craftsmanship? How have artists in other cultures and times expressed themselves through self-portraits?
The 3rd graders read the book Luke’s Way of Looking by Natalie Wheatley to discover how artists see things differently.
Next, the class read a book about self-portraits. They painted squares of color on a background. Through this painting, they mixed and applied tempera paints to create tints and shades. Then, they added tissue paper squares in places for added color and depth.
Then, I walked them through the steps to create their self portrait. We chose skin color paper and they drew their head, neck and ears. Each kid finished this step before we moved on to the next. We rounded off the edges of a 9×12″ piece of construction paper to make the shirt and shoulders. These were decorated with gel markers and crayons. After the head and shirt were glued to the background, I showed the kids how to cut out white eyes from construction paper. The details were drawn in with black marker and crayons. The nose and mouth were drawn on with black marker and crayon as well. Then, I passed out more skin color paper and they traced and cut out their hands for added expression. The last step was to rip or cut hair. This lesson took at least 4 class periods, as I was careful to demonstrate each step and then allow the kids to only complete that step. After these were glued together and complete, someone else suggested that we should place the hands in different places, such as near the face or mouth. oh well! next year!
Concepts taught will be background, parts and placement of facial features, proportion, identity and self-portrait. They will see examples of self-portraits by Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Henri Rousseau and others.
