One half of a Self-Portrait

I always do a self-portrait with the students each year. I try to change it up for every grade level so they're not just drawing themselves the same way every time. That would get boring! This year, the second grade students are drawing their self-portrait with half a picture of themselves as a guide. They turned out so wonderfully!
I had the kids do a pre-instructional drawing of their face first thing. I wanted them to see how much they could improve when drawing a face in just a matter of weeks. I didn't give them any directions, I only handed out pencils, erasers, paper and mirrors and told them to draw a picture of themselves. While they were doing this I called them up to a picture of their head and shoulders. The pre-instructional drawings I saved for afterwards so show growth.

During the next class, we had a talk about the face and how things line up. We talked about where the eyes and ears and all the facial features should go. We also spent a lot of time talking about the hair and how far down it should come onto the forehead. We also reviewed symmetry and how most of the facial features are the same on both sides of the face. (Before this class, I cut the picture I had taken and glued down one half on to a piece of tag board with sticky glue spray.) After our talk about facial proportions, I handed out these papers and the other half of their face for reference. Students spent the remainder of this class and the next drawing and the coloring their self-portraits.

 

At the end of the last class, each student had to hold their first drawing and their final drawing together for a picture so we could all see the improvement they had made.