With Guest Artists: Carly Fisher, age 10, Andrew Fisher, age 8, Samaya Balamurali, age 8, Ahana Balamurali, age 11
Kids Corner: Inside Out Self Portaits
With Guest Artists: Carly Fisher, age 10, Andrew Fisher, age 8, Samaya Balamurali, age 8, Ahana Balamurali, age 11
Self portraits are always fun. I had each child bring a photo of themself as a reference and explained we were going to do a cartoon version. This project not only teaches basic portrait drawing, but also emphasizes who they are on the inside. I told them to think about what makes them special and unique. It combines many disciplines: color mixing, using texture, creative writing, analytical thinking— math: as features of the face are determined by halves.
I gave a brief explanation of how to draw the eyes, nose and mouth proportionality. I referred to the diagram shown here. I pre-folded the poster board about one third of the way down and told them to draw an oval over the fold. That part was flipped up and under the fold information about themselves is put“ inside their head.”
We started with light pencil drawings and it was amazing because each child actually drew a great cartoon likeness of themselves. I told them they could pick any colors they wanted for skin & hair color, clothes & background. Blue, green, pink, purple anything they wanted for their face and hair, but they all stayed with traditional skin and hair color. I was impressed because we only had an hour and a half from start to finish and they finished on time and did an amazing job!
SUPPLIES:
• Cover for work area
• Poster board
• Pencils
• Rulers
• Acrylic paint
• Brushes, large and small brushes & stencil brushes
• Water containers, water
• Paper plates for pallets
• Permanent markers
• Contrasting paper for written insert
• Glue sticks
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Image 1: Photo # 1 Proportions of How to Draw Face Image 2: Ahana goes over the pencil drawing of her face with a permanent marker. Her poster board is folded 1 / 3 of the way down. Image 3: Samaya finishes using black marker over her pencil drawing. Note the fold ends right before the eyes, as she draws eyebrows on the top of the fold. She refers to a photo she brought of herself and creates a remarkable likeness Image 4: sing acrylic paint, Andrew paints over the black marker drawing making sure he can still see the marker lines through the paint.
56 SUMMER 2025 Gilroy • Morgan Hill TODAY Magazine: Go. Make history... gmhtoday. com