Optical Illusion Self-Portraits

My students really love and enjoy making self-portraits. I like to start the year with a new style of self-portait and talk to the students about how the best portraits not only resemble the person but also show us something about their personality as well.

First through third grade students created these fun self-portraits to start off the year! We began by spending the first two classes drawing a realistic and proportional self-portrait and then coloring it in with colored pencils. The students were pushed to add details to make it look more like them. We then spent a class creating an optical illusion painting. We discussed different types of lines and created an interesting pattern for the background. During the final class, students added the self-portrait to the painting and added different line patterns. 

Throughout this project, students examined self-portraits by Chuck Close, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Kehinde Wiley and several others for inspiration. 

Optical Illusions

These optical illusions were designed by the artists in 7th and 8th grades. We began with a lesson on perspective so students would understand how to use lines to make their drawing go back and forth in space. I then showed the class how to draw several different types of optical illusions step by step. Students could choose which optical illusion they wanted to draw for the project. Once a sketch was completed and done accurately, students drew a larger version. We then talked about atmospheric perspective and how colors appear brighter up close and duller as they get farther away. Students used this in the coloring to enhance the illusion.