Collaged self portraits with painted papers

Here is a small sample of some of the self portrait pieces made at the beginning of the year (these particular pieces are Kindergarten and First graders). I wanted them to get good exposure on the basic techniques- mixing colors, painting, cutting, gluing and drawing) in our first lesson so I included them all.

We did a color mixing intro (I covered the tables in paper and let them paint on the table- that was a huge hit ;)) then we cut up the papers and used them in our collages. To finish up the piece they used oil pastels (for some of them it was their first time using these).

We talked a lot about the difference between a portrait and a self portrait as well as looked at
portraiture in art history......I think the paintings that interested them the most were by Basquiat :) (how could they not love him??!!). Looking at his work seemed to catapult the kids into getting more energetic and loose with their own self portraits.

I adored this lesson! It gave me insight as to where the children were technically and how they liked to work as well as let them "talk" about themselves a little since the work was about them.

Happy creating!!