7th grade: Monochromatic Portraits

Wanted to find a new and interesting way to do portraits because I think portraits are boring. This was my response. I ended up adding another fun personalization for the students at the end of the unit. Stay tuned! My example is pictured above. 

I started this lesson by showing them a power point of a lot of cool portraits and artists (lots of fun facts and discussions through out to keep them interested). Then, I had them do pre-instructional portraits in their journals (duh)! Some of my favorites are pictured below. 

After this, I did a lesson on facial proportions where I did a guided drawing with them to learn the ratios and spacial relations of facial features. They all had a step-by-step instruction packet as well to follow along with. Lots of "ah-ha!" moments.

^ The guided drawing

^ Non- example

I took a photograph of each student and printed one out for each of them. Then, we started to make our grids. This was hard for some students and took a while. (My examples below)

Once they had their grid correct, they went box by box to create a contour outline of their face in pencil, then outlined it in Sharpie. 

Then, I talked about finding different highlights and shadows on your face and assigning them numerical values. 10 as the lightest and 1 as the darkest. This part was also tricky for some students. 

Then, starting with their chosen base color (mine was blue) they painted the darkest values with no white mixed in. As they continued to add white to their paint, they worked from 1 to 10. Some of them used pure white as their 10. 

Last, I had them paint the complimentary color of their portrait in the background with water color. As an afterthought, I decided to have them write their hopes for the future in Sharpie on top of their background to add a personal touch. Below are some student examples. I think they did great!

 Loved the composition on this one^

For my two students with special needs, I modified this by having them choose their color and make an "abstract" painting. Then, we put a piece of transparent paper over a mirror for them to trace their face. I overlaid this with their painting and the results (below) were cute!

All in all, I think this unit was pretty long and complicated for my 7th graders. In the future I would simplify it, or do it with 8th or 9th graders. I might have used colored pencils instead of paint. The mixing was difficult for them. I think the kids were pretty proud of their final products though.