Color Scheme Portraits

1st through 5th graders started off the school year by creating a self-portrait in an assigned color scheme. 1st grade: Primary colors, 2nd Grade: Secondary colors, 3rd Grade: Tertiary colors, 4th Grade: Complementary colors and 5th Grade: Analagous colors.  We began by a guided drawing of our faces, step-by-step.  I gave the students a mirror to see the shapes of their features and the lines of their hair and to discuss proportion.  There were lots of giggles at first (mainly with the little ones), as I told them to look in the mirror and say, "Hi Beautiful!" or "Hi Handsome!"  And they actually did it!  I love that they were having fun with their reflections and giving themselves a positive affirmation!  I demonstrated how to draw the different textures and styles of hair and eyeglasses, as well as how to add accessories, like headbands, earrings, etc. Finally, we discussed the color scheme their grade level would learn about through this project and how to color in their faces and features using non-traditional colors.  It was difficult for some of them to wrap their heads around using an odd color for their skin and hair, but I explained to them that these were in a pop-art style of bold, bright, unexpected colors.  These were meant to be fun portraits, not so much a serious photo realistic type portrait.  It was mainly the older kids that had more of a difficulty with sticking to the color schemes, the younger ones didn't seem to question it.  They were instructed to fill in the space of the paper with lots of color and pattern.   When they had completed the portraits, I made them into banners for their class to display in the hall outside of their classroom.

Monochromatic Self-Portraits

    Thanks to the wonderful Elementary Art Fun Blog (http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-week-of-school-ideas.html) and a fellow teacher finding this project there and sharing it with us, we created these wonderful self-portraits for our first art class of the school year.  Now these bright, happy faces, K-5,  line the main hallway of our school and are creating a lot of smiles! 

    Students were given a set of monochromatic colors in crayons, colored pencils and markers.  They were instructed on how to draw a simple portrait and add their own unique charateristics to it.  I showed them a portrait of myself that was done in reds, and I asked the students to tell me what they noticed about my portrait, hoping they'd pick up on the color scheme.  But, most said they noticed my hair was pretty, or that I had on lipstick or glasses in my portrait, and I was eating up the compliments.  When one first grade boy at the back of the room seemed to have an epiphany, his hand flew up in the air and he said, "I know!  I know!".  I said, "Yes, what is it?"  He said, "I know, you look better!"  Gotta love first graders!!!