Mrs. Ryback's Art Studio: "Moody" Self-Portraits Part 1

With the start of the new year, K1 is exploring the intricate details of the human face. Our first step in learning how to draw portraits was to examine what we already knew. Students were asked to draw a person's face any way they wanted. We then discussed the types of shapes and lines they all used to draw the different features of the face. We talked about how people have round heads, so using a triangle or a square would not work, unless you are Spongebob Squarepants. We observed that people have 2 circles inside of their eyes, and that our noses are not closed shapes. We found endless ways to draw noses, mouths and ears. Students then drew 3 more faces using the knowledge gained from our brainstorming sessions and a few of the teacher's examples.

The progress students made in learning how to draw faces more realistically can be seen pretty clearly when comparing the first face they drew to the last 3 in this exercise. The first face, the one they were asked to draw without any guidance, shows us what the kids already know. As we look through the other 3 drawings, we can see more details included in the face, such as eye brows, the pupils and irises of the eyes, nostrils, eye lashes, lips, teeth, and even ears! We can also see that the noses are drawn using lines instead of closed shapes, like triangles or circles, and some are very complex.

In day 2 of our portrait unit, I shared the book The Way I Feel, by Janan Cain, which explores why we feel different emotions. We looked at the pictures to observe how the faces of the kids in the illustrations changed to show different feelings. We acted out some of the emotions ourselves, too. Next, we played a game in which each table had to build a face based on a emotion chosen by the teacher. Each table was given handouts with an assortment of eyes, noses, mouths, ears and eye brows to help inspire them.