5th grade Artist-inspired selfies

12/7/2017

Nyah in the style of Frida Kahlo

Ever since I started using my art room instagram this year (@anniesartroom), I've been slacking at taking pictures on my camera for my blog here. So, I don't have too many in-progress photos of this project....

I love teaching self-portraits and I do them with almost every grade every year and switch up the project every time. I thought it would be fun to give the 5th graders some choice as they did theirs this year so they each followed the same process of creating their self-portrait but did it in the style of one of 6 artists that I introduced them to. The artists that they were able to choose from were: Frida Kahlo, Kehinde Wiley, Diela Maharanie, Vincent Van Gogh, Heather Foust and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Before starting the project we looked at a bunch of images via a slideshow and chatted about the different characteristics of each artist. I loved seeing the kids reactions as I showed them the work. I was shocked (and excited) that Jean-Micheal Basquiat seemed to be the most liked by the students and the least popular was Kehinde WIley (which was ironic because he is one of my top artists and probably my favorite from this bunch).

I took pictures of each student and printed them on 8.5" x 11" paper before beginning and the first step for everyone was to trace the contour lines of their faces and shoulders onto 11" x 14" white paper using a lightbox. Students love using lightboxes for some reason....
The next step was to use the images provided as inspiration to make a background design that represented both their selected artist as well as themselves. They seemed to really enjoy this step and there were some really cool designs.

Layla in the style of Heather Foust

Julien in the style of Vincent Van Gogh

Ezra in the style of Kehinde Wiley

After the students drew their faces and background designs, they also had a choice of which art medium to use. Their choices were tempera cakes (I just bought Richeson semi-moist tempera cakes for my classroom www.dickblick.com/products/richeson-semi-moist-tempera-cakes/ and am in LOVE with them), markers (basic Crayolas) or colored pencils. Some students chose two-one for their faces and another for their backgrounds, Paints were a popular choice for this project.

The results of these are really great and the best part is that I have a bunch of proud 5th grade artists!