Reading with Mrs. D: 7 Ways to Create Self Portraits

Are you Looking for a New Medium for your Art Period?

Let's face it, most of us who have to teach our own art outcomes tend to stick with the same safe materials: Construction Paper, maybe some fancy paper, glue, crayons and markers.
I do.
Sure, we have a few other supplies in our overstuffed supply cupboards, plus we HORDE awesome things we find, but be honest, we stick with the easy classics.
Right?
Ok, some of you are better art teachers than me, but maybe you can find a new idea or two below.

LET'S CHANGE THAT!
There are literally thousands ideas for supplies you can use for art projects. AND Thousands of projects you can do. So for this article, let's look at some supplies we can use for Self Portraits.
Every Kid likes making pictures of themselves!
Or if you prefer you can have the students use these SAME ideas for portraits of a partner, family member or the subject of a study in another subject (such as an historical figure)

7 Ways to Create Self Portraits
(this list is by NO means complete please comment below with additional ideas!)

1. Cereal Portraits
Isn't this an ingenious way to create multi-cultural portraits? Use regular, multi-grain and chocolate Cheerios for skin and hair tones. You could even add Fruit Loops as clothing and accessories if you wanted to Jazz them up!

From http://www.thechaosandtheclutter.com

2. Wire Portraits
This is SO cool. I could Never do this with firsties. The teacher I linked to that I found this idea from did it with 8th grade, so keep that in mind when considering this AWESOME project. Perhaps an older elementary class could do something similar with an easier non-person subject?

From welcome2artclass.weebly.com

3. Photography Half-Portraits
I've seen a version of this project before (and have even done it while student teaching), where we take magazine pictures and have the students draw the other half of the celebrity/models face, What makes this AWESOME is that the student artists attempt to create the other half of their OWN faces. They could make their faces using coloured pencils/pencil crayons as in this sample, or you could use crayons, markers, paint, pastels, really whatever you like!

From Hannahs Art Club

4. Magazine Portraits
Speaking of Magazines, this one reminds me of a scene in the Truman show where Jim Carrey's character is ripping pictures of models out of magazines in an attempt to recreate the face of the girl he fell in love with. This is a slightly less creepy version. Students glue facial features to a representation of their heads.

From Meri Cherry

5. Clay Portraits
These Clay Self Portraits are a great hands on arts activity! Students look at themselves in a mirror, and then apply bits of clay and sculpt them to resemble themselves! Mr. Gianetto had them use ONLY balls and coils of clay to create these faces. Don't they look awesome?

From Art With Mr. Giannetto

6. Word Portraits
Pinterest has so many different ways of using this idea, so take your time combing through its links to find the one you like best. I like this simple one which can be linked to your creative writing curriculum. Students fill these very simple faces with words of things they like, or things about them. Everyone's heads will turn out differently!

From Art Projects For Kids

7. Loose Objects
Do you have a TON of random supplies in your craft closet? Not enough to give each student the same thing? THIS project is perfect for that Smorgasbord of supplies just taking up space!

From Playfully Inspired

One of Our Self Portraits (originally published 2011)
Last week I wanted to do something really different for art class, so I went to the dollar store with Mrs. L (the teacher across the hall), and bought mini art boards and pastels. I had a small budget left for supplies, and wanted to do something they could keep or gift to their parents.

I got my kiddies to use a pencil first to draw themselves on the canvas before colouring them in. This was REALLY important since there were no spare canvas.

Take a peek!
One of my boys hard at work:

My sample and the supplies:
I NEVER make an art project without doing it too, either with them, or as a sample first. In this case, I made my sample with them so they could see my pencil drawing first.

Some finished products:

Do you have a different/original idea I haven't featured here?

Leave a comment to share you idea and a link!

********************************************************

Have something you'd like me to blog about, or are interested in guest blogging? Please comment below.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom? Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers.