The kids loved this project.
I can hardly wait to do this project again.
Can you tell I'm excited about this project?
I basically took a lesson I have done several times on creating a self portrait and embellished it a bit to fit into the Magic and Myth camp. How? I told everyone they were going to paint a portrait of themselves as royalty.
Who doesn't want to be a King or Queen?
One of my favorite fall purchases last year was some double sided mirrors from Dick Blick. I pulled these out and then step by step showed the kids the rules of the face as we drew together. I asked them to continually look in the mirror to discover the shape of their face, their eyes, their nose, and their mouth.
I think they all truly enjoyed when I would come around and tell them to look at the way their eyes were beautifully shaped or what a lovely heart shaped face they had. You could see them blossom under the compliments and that made me feel all kinds of good too.
When they finished their sketch, which took a long time and was very hard work, I handed out sheets of carbon paper so they could easily transfer their sketch to the final paper.
Once they finished tracing with the carbon paper, they added crowns and whatever else they wanted as rulers of a great land.
Next they traced their pencil lines with permanent black marker.
Then out came the acrylic paints.
And when they finished painting, I gave them some gold paint I had to add to their crowns.
It was surprising and wonderful to see the imaginative ideas the kids came up with in this project. Lots of different ideas on what where they ruled as Kings and Queens.
One boy was King of the mountain. If I put a photograph up of this child, you would be gobsmacked at what an amazing job he did in capturing his likeness.
7 year old
Another little boy was the King of Funnyland. What's not to love about a crown that throws pies, a clown nose and a clown car for your chariot? beep. beep.
7 year old
There were several Queens who ruled over animal lands. Here's the Queen of Puppies and no, that is not a black eye. She has a spotted eye like a dog, along with a gold dog tag around her neck.
7 year old
Another young girl was Queen of the Kittycats. If she could everything she worked on would have a cat in it, so no big surprise to see her ruling over them too. Check out that cat crown she's wearing too!
8 year old
The afternoon camp had a Queen of Cats also. I love the veil she added to her crown.
9 year old
And some just wanted to be rulers of all animals, evident by the many animals represented in her crown.
8 year old
There was also Queen of the Budgies. Do you see it? There on the left shoulder?
8 year old
I had one student who was obsessed with an online game and she spent a lot of time sharing many details with me. She was thrilled to be ruler over the game.
8 year old
And then some students just decided to do a formal portrait with no embellishments.
10 year old
7 year old
8 year old
Then one child decided she wanted to do her portrait of her cousin, who was also in the class. Although not nearly as pronounced as in the painting, she did have one beautiful green eye and one beautiful blue eye. How sweet is it that this child loves her cousin so much she wanted to create a portrait of her? Lucky kids to grow up with that kind of relationship.
9 year old
And then this happened, one of those moments there is no way to plan and yet I could not be more thrilled to see happen. Lots of times kids will come to camp total strangers yet by the second day look like they have been lifelong friends. Such was the case with these two girls and so by the third day of camp when we worked on these portraits, they asked if they could do theirs together.
Sure. Why not?
And so on one piece of paper, they each began to draw their self portrait. They asked me what they would do when it came time to put it on the final paper and I assured them that since we would be using carbon paper, they could each use the one sketch to trace.
That made them so happy as they began to draw together.
To create this work, the double-headed girl.
10 year old
If that doesn't just encapsulate the spirit of the Magic and Myth camp! What is even more interesting is how different their works are using the exact same sketch.
8 year old
When this project was complete, I was so excited by the variety of artwork. I felt like someone should give me a crown for coming up with the project idea!
To have a project so throughly capture the imagination of the kids was one of those moments you strive for each time. I think the kids were quite thrilled to see themselves immortalized wearing crowns and I believe years from now will look back on these works and smile.
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