"Moody" Self Portraits Part 2

This past week K1 students drew their own self portraits. We began by choosing a feeling and thinking about what makes us feel that way. We then made a face expressing that feeling and looked in mirrors to observe what happens to the features of our faces. Next, we drew our faces, adding details in the background of things that make us feel that way.

Every student had a chance to meet with me and tell me about the feeling they chose and the things that evoke that emotion in them. Here is just a small sample of some of the K1 self portrait drawings and the artists' reflections on the feelings they chose:

"In my self portrait I am feeling happy. Things that make me feel this way are when it's summer, ice cream, a heart and snow." -Katy

"In my self portrait I am feeling happy. Things that make me feel this way are snowmen, dogs and being 7." -Kenny

"In my self portrait I am feeling happy. Things that make me feel this way are cotton candy, watching the sun go down, jumping on a trampoline, lollipops, rainbows and swimming pools." -Victoria

"In my self portrait I am feeling sad. Things that make me feel this way are spiders and ghosts." -Max

"In my self portrait I am feeling scared. Things that make me feel this way are scary clowns, clowns with sharp teeth, lightening." -George

You may think we are close to being to finished with this project, all that's left is to add color, right?! WRONG! We are just getting started! Our finished artwork will be a print of our original drawing. A print is a copy, or a stamp, of the first image. To create our stamp, or print plate, we must transfer our drawing to a piece of printing foam. Once each portrait was taped to a piece of foam, the young artists traced their drawings with a less-than-sharp pencil, making sure to press hard enough so that their lines were indented in the foam. When finished, the original drawing was removed from the foam, and everyone traced their drawings a second time, this time directly into the foam, to insure that the lines are deep and thick enough for printing.

Next up: PRINTMAKING! Stay tuned!