Kindergarten portraits

At the end of the year, I find it a good te to try projects that will introduce lessons they will do next year.  Kind of like a pre practice.  These kindergarten students have done an outstanding job!

First grade Portraits starting to Emerge

This is one of my favorite projects. Perhaps, that is why it is done on almost a annual basis. I really love seeing how this little guys express themselves when learning about PORTRAIT. First we discuss PORTRAIT. What is it? What does the artist want us to see? Then we learn about putting the face together, where the features go, and how big they are compared to each other - perspective. After a couple of practice drawings, we start on the final sheet. The next step is to begin filling in color with oil pastels. I usually have them layer a couple of colors, such as orange and a "skin" color, to give our faces some warmth. Then we move onto clothing, making sure to mix at least two similar colors, finally we get to the hair. We discuss that hair is not one big piece, but many different strands that are different colors. I demonstrate how we can create the look of strans by laying lines of different color, then they create hair. To top it off, we fill in a background that could deal which seasons, events, or even different artists styles. The result is some truly amazing work!

Mrs. Snead goes to School

This past November I had the opportunity to attend a Portrait Workshop with Ann Kenyon, an internationally known artist, at the UNF Campus. WOW! Did I ever learn what I didn't know about painting portraits in oils!!!!!!! This was an all day workshop and I must say, I was exhausted at the end. On interesting point was I experienced some of the frustrations the kids feel when they are tackling a challenging project with me. Many times, I will tell them to look at their work and figure out what it needs. They tend to look at me with blank stares and say "I don't KNOW what it needs." Well, I was feeling their pain during the production time. I would look and know that my portrait definitly needed something but I could not figure out what. I was having trouble getting the right color mixed with the paints and ......well, I could go on and on. Ultimately, I did paint a portrait that looked like a human being, however, it did not do justice to the beautiful model I was painting. BUT, the great thing was the EXPERIENCE! I know I have a lot of work to do to be successful at Portraiture, but I know that I was motivated to do the work and get better. What a wonderful experience!!!!

Learning A lot from Portraits

Our first graders are beginning their journey with Portraits this year, finding out what makes a portrait a portrait. We have talked about the fact that when we want to recognize someone, we look at their face, helping us to understand that portraits are meant for us to focus on the face. We want to know WHO they are. What else can working through portraiture teach us?? Well, we learn proportion as we look at sizes of the features of the face, we learn shape as we discuss BEST shapes for each feature, we learn parts of the face and how they function, we think about physical differences between people, such as eyes, hair, skin, etc. We also look at how the face is balanced in a symetrical fashion. During the application of color, we learn about shadow and light on the face and how to blend color to achieve specific results. We experiment with texture and pattern as we fill in hair and clothing. Portraits are just too much fun! What are the wonderful ways you can use portrait in your classroom?