Autumn: Me: Lesson 1
Self-portrait with tools
Self-portrait with tools
Making a self-portrait forces us to consider ourselves, how we look to others, how we see ourselves and how we wish to be seen. This can help foster self-awareness, which is essential to self-care. It is also a focused exercise in drawing techniques.
Warm-up: 10 mins
The Mirror (Theatre of the Oppressed) → see book 1, p.19
Introduction: 15 mins
Blind drawing
–Opening a new page in their notebook, each child positions themselves in front of a mirror.
–Instruct them that they should not look down at their page while they are drawing. They have one minute to draw their own portrait with a material of their choice, they should look at themselves in the mirror and draw.
–Encourage them to add texture for hair, eyelashes, details like freckles, earrings, eyebrows and scars, these are what make these drawings very interesting.
–They can repeat this activity a couple of times (The results should look quite funny.) They can also try this with a close up drawing of one eye or a nostril. Encourage them to make details and consider where they went wrong and try to correct it. These can fill up a page or two of their notebook, encourage them to fit as many drawings as possible into one page.
–Try different materials on other pieces of paper.
The Mirror (Theatre of the Oppressed) → see book 1, p.19
Introduction: 15 mins
Blind drawing
–Opening a new page in their notebook, each child positions themselves in front of a mirror.
–Instruct them that they should not look down at their page while they are drawing. They have one minute to draw their own portrait with a material of their choice, they should look at themselves in the mirror and draw.
–Encourage them to add texture for hair, eyelashes, details like freckles, earrings, eyebrows and scars, these are what make these drawings very interesting.
–They can repeat this activity a couple of times (The results should look quite funny.) They can also try this with a close up drawing of one eye or a nostril. Encourage them to make details and consider where they went wrong and try to correct it. These can fill up a page or two of their notebook, encourage them to fit as many drawings as possible into one page.
–Try different materials on other pieces of paper.
Development: 40 mins
– Make a short presentation of artist’s self-portraits (This can be made depending on the age of the class and there are many, many resources available online, make a short folder of varied approaches to drawing/ painting portraits. See section Useful Links .)
– Each child studies their face in the mirror for one minute in silence. Ask them to try to notice something they have never noticed before about their face: How many individual colours can they notice in the iris of their eye? What colour is their pupil? How far is the distance between their forehead and eyebrows? How far is the distance from their ear to their nose to their other ear? Who do they look like in their family? What characteristics can they spot from a family member or what is different about the shape of their face in comparison to their neighbour?
– Ask them to choose the thing they have never noticed before and to draw this part of their face (on a separate sheet/ notebook.) Encourage them to keep looking up and down, from their face in the mirror to their page to make sure they are capturing themselves.
– If they have the tools they created (optional, see lesson Drawing Tools ) ask children to consider where and how they would use it, in what part of their portrait could this be helpful. (For instance a rough tool might be useful for hair texture/ jumper texture/ a pointed tool might be good for detail on eyes/ nose) Make some practice strokes with this tool.
– Give each child a clean A3 sheet and ask them to draw their own portrait. It is a good exercise to use pencil for this and to encourage them not to use a rubber too much. They should work carefully from observation, drawing what they can see, not what they think should be there, looking up and down at their portrait. Remind them to check how much of their ears they can see. They should carefully outline and then build up detail as they go. When they are happy with their portrait they can begin to incorporate their drawing tool to add texture. Remind them as they work, of the careful studying the did at the beginning of the class.
Conclusion: 25 mins
– The tools can be cleaned and kept if they were particularly effective. They might be interesting sculptural objects and could be displayed in the classroom.
– Ask children if they noticed things about their face that they had never noticed before: Was it unusual to look at your own face for such a long time? Are you happy with your portrait? Why/ Why not?
– Invite them to write a short account in their notebooks, this could include some words describing how they felt about the activity and some descriptions of the materials they used.
– Make a short presentation of artist’s self-portraits (This can be made depending on the age of the class and there are many, many resources available online, make a short folder of varied approaches to drawing/ painting portraits. See section Useful Links .)
– Each child studies their face in the mirror for one minute in silence. Ask them to try to notice something they have never noticed before about their face: How many individual colours can they notice in the iris of their eye? What colour is their pupil? How far is the distance between their forehead and eyebrows? How far is the distance from their ear to their nose to their other ear? Who do they look like in their family? What characteristics can they spot from a family member or what is different about the shape of their face in comparison to their neighbour?
– Ask them to choose the thing they have never noticed before and to draw this part of their face (on a separate sheet/ notebook.) Encourage them to keep looking up and down, from their face in the mirror to their page to make sure they are capturing themselves.
– If they have the tools they created (optional, see lesson Drawing Tools ) ask children to consider where and how they would use it, in what part of their portrait could this be helpful. (For instance a rough tool might be useful for hair texture/ jumper texture/ a pointed tool might be good for detail on eyes/ nose) Make some practice strokes with this tool.
– Give each child a clean A3 sheet and ask them to draw their own portrait. It is a good exercise to use pencil for this and to encourage them not to use a rubber too much. They should work carefully from observation, drawing what they can see, not what they think should be there, looking up and down at their portrait. Remind them to check how much of their ears they can see. They should carefully outline and then build up detail as they go. When they are happy with their portrait they can begin to incorporate their drawing tool to add texture. Remind them as they work, of the careful studying the did at the beginning of the class.
Conclusion: 25 mins
– The tools can be cleaned and kept if they were particularly effective. They might be interesting sculptural objects and could be displayed in the classroom.
– Ask children if they noticed things about their face that they had never noticed before: Was it unusual to look at your own face for such a long time? Are you happy with your portrait? Why/ Why not?
– Invite them to write a short account in their notebooks, this could include some words describing how they felt about the activity and some descriptions of the materials they used.
