artwork by chloe age 7, self portrait
My friend Heidi who is a teaching artist emailed the following questions on the portrait project:
"when you did the self portraits do you use mirrors, imagination, or photos as reference? Did you use paper, and how do you set up the paint (always a challenge for me especially with a large group) and what brand tempera do you buy?"
1) We used mirrors from the dollar store and talked about the shapes of eyes being like lemons and what things really look like as opposed to a symbol. If they got the idea with the eyes I was happy.
2) I never use photo reference EVER. Not for my work and not for the kids. There is nothing like looking at the real thing. There is energy, dimension and life in reality that is not in a photo. I also encourage them not to pencil first. You need to learn to live with and deal with what you put down naturally. However I do make exceptions if the child feels uncertain.
3) We used heavy paper. The same paper we use for murals. Thick like cover stock, maybe a little heavier (I never remember the pound measurements of paper). Strathmore makes it in rolls and you can get it from Blick.
4) We have metal pallets that we set up ahead of time at a paint station with white, flesh and basic colors we know they want and leave space in the pallet so they can choose some of their own colors. Always encourage mixing.
5)For paint we used Blick tempera. You can catch a good sale and it is very good quality. I recently ran out of black and had to buy some cheap stuff at a craft store. Not only was there not enough pigment in it (it looked grayish) but when Evan used it to paint the top of a box it peeled the next week. The sides of the box painted with the Blick tempera did not.
Hope this helps!
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