Middle School Arts and Exploratory Arts

This project challenged students to create a self portrait using two different art making strategies:
1) Students began by making a self portrait using a strategy of observational drawing or drawing from direct perception. They first learned about proportions of the human head, and then set up a mirror in front of themselves, and over several classes, worked to draw themselves from direct observation (without taking a reference photography). This was done in charcoal.
2) Next, students tried to crate a portrait using a strategy of metaphor and abstraction. This was done using the rich colors of oil pastels, with students challenged to fill the entire space. How could colors, chapes, lines and symbols, create a kind of self portrait of how they were feeling those days? What was on their mind? What were they thinking about? How were they feeling?

(Text by Mr. Hawke)