blind contour self portraits

In March I had the honor of being asked to work with Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove on an outreach program they were running with Hollyburn Family Services. Together we created a project we thought the group would find engaging, blind contour self portraits.

A group of young adults showed up at the gallery where the curator gave them a guided tour, then we all sat down in front of some two sided mirrors I had brought and had some fun.

We started by just experimenting with the process using a pencil in hopes of getting everyone comfortable, but what I discovered was there was no need. There were some amazing sketches that were just stunning!

I was so excited by some of the pencil sketches, but even more excited at how quickly everyone embraced this technique and were having fun! One young man, who likes to draw comics, was so taken with his creations that he mentioned he might use this form of drawing in his new works.

I couldn't ask for much more than that kind of endorsement!

Here's a few more of their "practice" sketches which turned out to be lovely finished works in themselves. Supplies for this are so simple, a paper plate with a hole in the middle to stick the drawing tool of your choice through and a mirror. The only instruction I give them is to not lift up their pencil while drawing.

The first ones they did in pencil and then we started working with a permanent marker.

Aren't they fascinating? 

I then gave each of them a water-soluble pencil and a piece of watercolor paper. Once again they did a self portrait drawing using the paper plate with the pencil stuck through it (so they couldn't cheat and look) and studied their reflection in the mirror.

I then put out some liquid watercolors so they could fill in some of the shapes within the image they created.

I love how each persons unique personality is conveyed on the paper. And it was wonderful to be part of the camaraderie in the room. It was a very special group of young people to get to share some time with .

I was completely taken with this particular work where they artist added some words. How poetic, "this is me. in life. with love."

I would love to see some of these compositions explored in larger works. There was lots of laughter and talking while artists created their works and the time went very quickly. 

Some artists completed more than one work they enjoyed it so much and before we knew it, time was up! And no one was really ready to leave. Thanks to the supportive curator at the gallery, they didn't have too and everyone ended up staying another half hour after we were suppose to be finished.

There were some gifted young people in this group. Artists who I hope continue to pursue their obvious talents. It was a truly enjoyable couple of hours spent at the gallery and I hope to have the opportunity to work with them again in the future.

We had covered the tables in butcher paper to protect them from paint and one artist left this "doodle" behind. I asked her if she wanted it and she shrugged but I was so taken with it, I asked if it was OK if I kept it and she agreed. 

It now hangs in my studio on the wall. A lovely keepsake for me to remember some remarkable young adults I was lucky enough to work with for an afternoon.

self portraits in watercolor by three year olds

Right next to puppies and kittens, the cutest thing on earth is watching three year olds create self portraits.

Honestly, nothing could be cuter.

I put out a large piece of watercolor paper and gave each little girl a permanent marker. 

Then I placed a mirror in front of them so they would be able to see themselves and began asking them questions.

What shape is your face?

Draw a very big circle on your paper.

What connects your face?

Draw two lines to make your neck.

And here is where it got very cute.  I asked them to study their eyes in the mirror and then draw them. They then studied their nose, their mouth, their ears, and their hair.

They loved looking at themselves in the mirror and concentrating on their reflection and then they would draw their features exactly as you would expect a three year old to draw them.

So funny.

So sweet it made your teeth hurt.

After they finished drawing themselves with the marker, I gave them liquid watercolor in the three primary colors and asked them to begin putting in a background.

I encouraged them to mix the colors together to see what happened and gave them some salt to explore.  I was quite impressed how well they did not putting the backgrounds into their faces.

Then I asked them to put out their hands and asked what color was their skin, pink, yellow, or orange?  One said pink and the other said yellow. (I think she actually said orange but ended up just using yellow)

Then I showed them how to water down the color so they got a light pink or yellow.

Then they got to work painting in their hair.  Both had bangs and they may of been a little long but by no means did they hang down past their mouth.

Or their nose.

What a fun 45 minutes this was watching the girls create self portraits. What a great start to my Monday morning! No matter what happened the rest of the day, it was hard not to feel good after such an endearing morning.

I have no doubt these will be cherished works of art for years to come by their families. 

Self portraits repeat

Did I mention how excited I was to finally purchase mirrors for my studio?

So excited I figured every.single. class. needed to use them in the first week and so here are some self portraits created by the Thursday afternoon class with oil pastels.

Again, we talked about how their self portraits didn't need to look "exactly like them" but could just capture the personality of them.   

In my own artwork, I have been focusing on self portrait and I would just like to say that drawing yourself IS HARD!  I had forgotten what a challenge it can really be to look at yourself and then try to put the essence of your being on paper. 

And so during the process of my students doing self portraits, if I see any of them begin to get too bogged down in trying to create themselves, I will give them an out and tell them that it is OK for it to be "just a portrait of someone".   Usually what I find is that when the pressure is gone to "create me", they usually end up with a portrait of "me".

And for some in this class, this is what happened.  

I thought the girls all ended up with lovely work.

7 year old

7 year old

8 year old

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.  

Breaking the rules with Picasso

This is the final project I am going to share from the "Art Yourself" camp at North Vancouver Community Arts Council.  Unfortunately I just did not get great photos of the clay head bust the kids did which is so disappointing because they were darling.

I find the last day of camp a bit challenging as I need a project that doesn't need time to dry since the kids need to be able to take it home at the end of the three hours.  While trying to decide what project to introduce, I remembered a project I did years ago when my children (who are now in University and their last year of high school) were in elementary school outside of Seattle, Washington.

I was the Art Docent Chairperson for our school and discovered this Picasso project in the handbook. I was not completely sold that it was great but I needed something quick for a teacher who needed me to come in at the last minute.  By the end of the 45 minutes, I was more than sold as the kids had a great time, learned a bit about Picasso's cubist work, and the teacher had an amazing display to show the parents at Open House.  Win, win, win.

I have always wanted to revisit it and with a camp focused on self portrait work, this seemed like the perfect time.

The kids were "all in" when it came to breaking the rules after the fun they had the day before with the Modigliani inspired portraits.  At first I think they might of been a bit disappointed we weren't working with the pastel chalks again, but I try hard to introduce the students to a wide variety of different mediums during the week and at this point had not done anything with the oil pastels.

So I showed them a few of Picasso's cubist portraits and asked them what they saw that made it different and interesting.  

Then they pulled out the photos their parents took of their side profile and the forward facing head shot.  I quickly showed them that the oils were much more interesting when you layered lots of color instead of just using them like a crayon.  I even showed them that when they layered lots of color, the pastel did all the blending work for them and they didn't even need to use their finger very much to rub things together.

Next I handed them a black piece of pastel paper and I asked them to draw the shape of their head on the paper with the black oil pastel.

Then using the blind contour drawing skills they learned earlier in the week, minus the paper plate, I asked them to add their profile through the middle of the face they had drawn.  Every. single. child. was eager to try, even the ones who had shed a few tears in frustration earlier in the week.  With a better understanding of the outcome, their fears had been alleviated.  

Hallelujah!

I then asked them to draw one eye face forward.  Then we discussed what looked different about their eye in the profile picture and I asked them to add this to the page too.  I told them it did not need to be in the same place nor the same size.  Whatever made them happy was great.

We talked about all the angles we saw in Picasso's work and they to draw a nose that pleased them.

After that, the lips.  Some did part of the lip in profile and the other face front, others just a front view.  Their choice.

Then they added color and WOW!

Look at the results!!

A great project years ago and a great project now.

6 year old

10 year old

8 year old

6 year old

8 year old

8 year old

10 year old

7 year old

6 year old

6 year old

6 year old

Modigliani self portraits

So after doing several traditional style portraits with the children at the North Vancouver Community Arts Council summer camp called "Art Yourself", it was time to let them break the rules.

This made one of the little six year old girls and her friends giggle.  She was very excited when I told her we were going to be rule breakers.  And she really embraced the concept of this project, laughing at each new aspect that I introduced.

So rewarding for me to see a reaction such as hers, worth more than all the money in the world.

So I put out several art works of Amedeo Modigliani for the students to observe and of course, just like when I did the Modigliani inspired "princesses" at my studio,  they all immediately jumped on the elongated necks.

But then a very interesting thing happened, after listening to me harp that the eyes are halfway down the face, the nose halfway between the eyes and the chin, and the mouth halfway between the nose and the chin, they also clicked in right away that the nose was way too long and the eyes way too high.

Unlike my own children, they listened when I spoke!! And they now understood the given proportions of portrait work well enough to understand how to break them.

And so they started sketching their own self portraits inspired by Modigliani and when they were happy with them, I handed out chalk pastel on black pastel paper.  They put some white chalk on the back of their sketches and then placed their final sketches on top of the black paper and traced them.  When complete, I handed them a black oil pastel to trace over the white lines and they were off to the races with the chalks.

They LOVED the chalks.

While working with them, several of the campers asked if we could do all the rest of our projects in chalk.  By the time they were finished, there were beautiful works of art and also children covered in a rainbow of color!

blue noses

orange chins

and a multitude of color on their hands.

My assistant volunteers extraordinaire, Jessica and Becca, and myself did not fair any better but it didn't matter when you see kids having that much fun.

So much fun that when given the opportunity on the last day to draw whatever they wanted, we had someone once again inspired by Modigliani's work and do yet another portrait in this style.

6 year old

8 year old

10 year old

6 year old

10 year old

7 year old

8 year old

6 year old

8 year old

6  year old

6 year old