Contour and Pattern Self-Portraits

Students in middle school began the semester with a review of some drawing activities. One of my favorite lessons is blind contour drawing. It teaches the artist to become more observant and focused while quickly improving their drawing skills. We spent a day doing blind contour drawings of hands before using mirrors and drawing our faces. Once these were finished, students traced them onto another paper with sharpie. Students then needed to add a minimum of five patterns. I encouraged students to choose patterns that would enhance the self-portrait, like if you love to swim then do a pattern that looks like waves or water drops. The final step was to choose a color scheme and fill in parts of the portrait with colored pencils. These turned out great and the artist's personality definitely shines through in each one!

Texture Shoes

International Academy students continued the year with a different type of self-portrait. We did some detailed contour line drawings of our shoes in class. These drawings were then transferred onto a larger paper and outlined with different colors of crayon. Before painting, students used crayon and rubbing plates to add a variety of textures to the shoes and backgrounds. These paintings are great because they show a great deal of the students personality, both in the style of shoe and the way it was painted.

Expressive Self-Portraits

Middle School students began their first project of the new semester after completing one week of drawing exercises. During the first week, one of the activities we practiced was contour line drawings of hands. I extended this lesson to include a contour line self-portrait. Students used mirrors and were free to do contour line or continuous contour. Once complete, these were outlined with sharpie and then students could use watercolor paint in a variety of ways. We discussed how artists can use color to portray personality and make the portrait more expressive. 

Contour Line Self-Portraits

Students in middle school began the semester with some drawing activities. One of my favorite lessons is blind contour drawing. It teaches the artist to become more observant and focused while quickly improving their drawing skills. We spent a day doing blind contour drawings of hands before using mirrors and drawing our faces. Once these were finished, students traced them to the back of the paper to complete multiple transfers in any way or style they wanted. These were then traced with sharpie and colored in using a split complementary color scheme. These turned out great and the artist's personality definitely shines through in each one!

Contour Line Hands

International Academy students created these contour line hand paintings. We began by creating contour line drawings of our hands. A contour line is essentially an outline that defines the form or edge. These were then transferred repeatedly onto a larger paper. Students needed to arrange the hands in a way to make a good use of space. Once complete, these hands were painted with watercolors and blended. Students were assessed on the form of the hand, the use of space and the blending of analogous colors.

Glue Shoe Paintings

International Academy students continued the year with a different type of self-portrait. We did some detailed contour line drawings of our shoes in class. These drawings were then transferred onto a large paper and then traced over with a black glue. The black glue gives objects a nice and solid black outline that also shows a nice movement. Students extended the lines of the shoes out into the background and finished it off with some watercolor paint. These paintings are great because they show a great deal of the students personality, both in the style of shoe and the way it was painted.