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This project takes a bit of prep work and digital photography, but I love the results so much that it all seems worth it.1. I started by shooting large head shots of students against a white wall. The photos were opened in Photoshop, saved with a lot of brightness added (to lighten the image) and then printed in b/w out on plain letter-size paper. I also printed a 3/4" grid paper on 9" x 12" drawing paper.
2. Each student takes their face print, puts it on top of a sheet of carbon paper, centers that on the grid paper and lightly tapes all together. To make a simple drawing, the students are to trace just the edges of their hair, shoulders and then the inside of their face. No details are needed inside the hair and clothes. When the drawing is complete, the top papers are removed to reveal the drawing on the grid paper. They carbon lines are then traced with a black colored pencil.
3. To color, the students should think of their portraits as four sections: the face, the hair, the clothes and the background. Starting with the face, they need to choose two colored pencils to work with. My sample shows red colored in first, stopping at the edges of the face. When complete, the other squares are colored (my sample shows pink). I think the eyes look best colored with their natural color.
4. Repeat the coloring process for the hair and clothes and background.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Five
2.4 Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.
2. Each student takes their face print, puts it on top of a sheet of carbon paper, centers that on the grid paper and lightly tapes all together. To make a simple drawing, the students are to trace just the edges of their hair, shoulders and then the inside of their face. No details are needed inside the hair and clothes. When the drawing is complete, the top papers are removed to reveal the drawing on the grid paper. They carbon lines are then traced with a black colored pencil.
3. To color, the students should think of their portraits as four sections: the face, the hair, the clothes and the background. Starting with the face, they need to choose two colored pencils to work with. My sample shows red colored in first, stopping at the edges of the face. When complete, the other squares are colored (my sample shows pink). I think the eyes look best colored with their natural color.
4. Repeat the coloring process for the hair and clothes and background.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Five
2.4 Create an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.
5 comments:
I love this idea and can't wait to try it! I did a similar lesson based on Chuck Close with my 6th graders - we drew a grid over the photo and then made our drawings using another grid to enlarge them, then painted that with tempera. I really like your lesson for the younger kids, as this was challenging even for the 6th graders!
Now that we have finished this, I notice it is labeled 4th and 5th. I did it with 2 3rd graders and a first grader on Spring Break. The third grader who just turned 9 totally rocked it. The younger 3rd grader was frustrated with tracing. The first grader went off to play Barbies while her sister finished her coloring. BUT THEY ALL LOVED IT ANYWAY! Thank you!
This is a great project- my kids love to color in the boxes on their graph paper. I've printed this off and am going to see what they can come up with on their own. They usually make patterns with different colors, but I don't think they've ever thought to make a picture. Great stuff, thanks!
Could you print it out on premade graph paper with the right sized squares so younger children would not lose focus???
We did this last year for an art fair entry. We improvised on one step-- instead of using carbon paper, we laid the black/white photo on the table and covered with a piece of vellum. It was see-through enough to trace outlines. Once traced, we taped the piece of vellum to a grid sheet that was printed out. You could see the grid through the vellum. I really liked how the colored pencils worked on the piece of vellum. For display we taped the piece of vellum to a piece of solid white cardstock.
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