Self portrait pre tests

This is our first assignment for the new year before we try "drawing on tje right side of the brain".  Here are some results.  These are all pre instruction, 7th and 8th grade.

Selfie

We are starting our self portrait project.  Since the word of the year for 2013 was "Selfie"  I thought this was an amazing resource.  We are looking at the work of Kehinde Wiley, New York artist who puts hip hop artists and people off the streets in the same poses as European master portraits from centuries ago.

Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine

Jacques-Louis David- Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Wiley's Version of Napoleon crossing the Alps- 2005

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley

The artist Kehinde Wiley himself

Students pose for the photo, I print it out, they trace on transparency, put on projector and get large format.  add crazy backgrounds, and paint.
Kehinde Wiley works big, so we did too: these are 18x 24 inches!  Took us a month!

Tessellation portraits

this is a 2 part project starting with tessellations.  students use a square of poster board as a template. They design their own tessellation and then apply it to a background.  they are then painted in with acrylics using either a warm or a cool color scheme.  Meanwhile I take their photographs and I digitally manipulate them using photoshop.  I adjust the contrast, changing to grayscale then posterizing it for the students.  I print this off and then go back to photoshop and flip the image.  1 more print in we are ready to trace.  students put their image on a window and trace the value shapes.  the resulting image looks like a paint by number project.  using their original photographs for guidance, they paint in different values of color.  this is then cut out and glued on top of the Tessellation page.

What's in your locker?

This lesson comes from Mr. Utsler at Art4cast. Students generate a " self portrait" by showing things about themselves inside their locker. Here is the lesson.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Beginning exercises are to draw a self portrait from a mirror, then later, to draw a person from memory. See how similar they are? That is because the students were not truly drawing from observation. We will improve this!

Pre-test: self- portraits

Wanna know how good your art students draw before you teach them to draw? Do a pretest!

Why are we doing so many self portraits?

Here's why.