Expressionist Self Portraits

I was very excited to finally order some double sided mirrors from Dick Blick that I have had my eye on for over a year now.  And so when they arrived, I naturally had to use them in class right away.

Hello self portraits.

But the students in my Tuesday class have all done a self portrait work once or twice with me already, so how to spice it up a bit?

Well, I decided to make them run.

Yes, that's right.

Run.

I put the mirrors and their paint palettes on one side of the room and the easels with their canvas on the other side of the room.

And they only had primary colors.

Why did I do this?

Well first, I wanted to help them try expressionistic painting.  And by putting their paints and mirror on one side of the room, they would only be able to do a stroke or two at each pass.

Second, they would really have to slow down and look at themselves in the mirror since they had to choose what strokes they wanted to add next.

And finally, it helps to put some distance between yourself and your work to really look at it.

But most importantly, what child would not think it was fun to have to run back and forth across the room while painting?

They did love the running.

But they weren't quite enthusiastic at embracing the fact they could only do one or two strokes at a time.  In fact, one student sneakily took her palette with her on a run and quietly began to paint the "regular way" until I caught her.

I loved the way the paintings came out at the end of class.  Keep in mind they only had primary colors, so were also having to think about mixing colors too.  Unfortunately two of the three kids walked out of class that night not loving their self portraits and so while I commended them on their success at staying with and learning a new process, I promised all of them they could sit down at a table with their portraits the following week and use whatever art materials they wanted to finesse their work.

I really loved their final work after the first night, but also respect that they all felt they needed to refine it to please themselves.  But I want to share both pieces here on the blog so you can see what I felt was a successful expressionist work of art and also the beautiful portraits they took home after the second week of class.

Expressionist portrait, 11 year old

I truly love this piece and although it does not look EXACTLY like her, it definitely captured the essence of the artist in spades.  Below is the additional work she did the second week.

And then there was this artist who was happy with her artwork after the first night.  Whether that is because she was a sneaky, sneaky artist who might of gotten her palette past me and to her canvas for a bit when the others didn't, I don't know.  But she went on to a new project the second week.

Expressionist portrait, 10 year old

And then there was this boy.  This was a painting style waaaay out of his comfort zone.  He is a very confident artist, but he was definitely feeling unsure during this process.  Yes, he liked running back and forth but he had a hard time really figuring out how to like an expressionist style of painting.  To me when I look at this artwork, it captures the artist very well.  I also think it does a marvelous job of also capturing his feelings during this process.  I thought this piece was extremely successful, but he did not share the same opinion.

Expressionist portrait, 7 year old

He thought he looked like a monkey. (he didn't)  He did the nose a hundred times and finally just painted it out when I assured him he could work on it the following week.   As I told him, sometimes it is about the process not the product, but I love this product.  I wish he could of seen it through either my or his mother's eyes.  

But as I always tell all the kids in my classes, you must please yourself first.  Not the viewer.  And so here is what he did to please himself the following week.

I love the details he added to the shirt and background.  He has a natural eye for detail.  He was much happier with the painting after the second week.  I think both are wonderful.

All in all, a fun way to do self portrait work.