Expressive Self Portraits

​This year-end intro to art project is meant to give students a lot of choice and show off the skills they have built throughout the year with me. The unit began with looking at famous self portraits, contemporary expressive portraits, surreal portraits, and drawing each other using classical face proportions.

​I even pulled out their first-day-portraits (Yes, we draw each other on the first day of class without any instruction). We have a laugh, but we look at them with a critical eye. What went wrong? What did we learn? What would these look like if we did them again, now 8 months later?

​Once we had out background information I let students know where this was all going. There were just 3 rules.
 
#1. You must create an expressive self portrait using classical facial proportions at the root of it.
#2. You can use ANY media we have used this year.
#3. Show off your skills (What you have learned so far this year.)
 
I would reiterate my set-up and clean up expectations daily. Circulate and provide feedback as they worked. We have a small computer lab next to my room, so students were able to print reference images as needed. So if they needed to draw a lion, they should print one. If an image inspired them, they could print it out as a reference to guide their technique, but they know copying is not acceptable and covered in the rubric.

​Each day, I would also hit on certain things I wanted to see that they had learned about throughout the year, often providing samples.
 
A. Colors should be blended and overlapped for a rich and realistic hue.
B. I want to see shading, the world is not flat, but 3D.
C. Consider textures and patterns. Flat areas of color are often boring.
D. Use your mirrors, measure, compare, and work from observation.
E. Consider the background, work the whole composition.
 
Mid-project critiques by peers can often generate ideas and catch problems before work is complete. This can be fairly simple and take just a few minutes. I call on 5 or 6 students to share what they heard about their work, and ask if they will take the advice, or if it spurred other ideas. Often the advice of one student is helpful to others.
 
Many of my students have never had art before, and some show a lot of skill in their work due to previous classes. I am sharing a broad selection from strong to simple works, but all I feel were successful in showing off a portion of their personality and demonstrating the skills they learned this year. 

For more expressive projects, please visit these posts:
Abstract Expressionism, Sculpture version of expressive self portraits, How to insure individuality in student work.