More portraits

This portrait used the painting we did as part of our Christmas art... we first talked about how we made the art - you can check it out here.

The aim was to get the children thinking about creating a portrait based on how they feel rather than how they look... so no mirrors were used this time... they had to draw themselves as they felt... so when I was aksed "can I be square" I answered well if you feel square expresses how you feel right now about yourself then you should draw yourself square...


The large painting was cut into 8 pieces... one for each child. I placed them randomly on the floor and the children walked round and chose the background they felt suited them best... all the children were satisfied with their choice.

They got to choose one colour to draw with... this turned out to be quite difficult for a few of the children who really wanted to use many colours... but this was supposed to be a challenge... there are and will continue to be plenty of chances to use many colours and multi-colours on other occasions. The idea was for the child to focus on the form and design of the portrait, rather than on colouring in the portrait in various colours... this is not to say that we will not return to these portraits and add more colour... we might just do that.

It was also interesting to see how the children looked at each other's art, complimented each other and told each other how they were inspired to do something similar... so in the end there were small fishes on most, eyes and other body parts could be seen as inspiration sources. The children were teaching each other... sharing their techniques freely with each other... and also sharing the stories behind their choice of image... one child drew herself as a rabbit, another as a fish, there were robots and one child had a self protrait that was motion... lines across the page representing the child climbing a ladder...


I love creating big works of art with the children... I also want to work sustainably and combining one project with another helps me meet that... and also gives the children a new way to see their art... that maybe its not always finished, maybe it can be added to over time...


This connects with our Da Vinci project as part of portraits... Da Vinci the artist.