Day of the Dead Drawing

Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) is a holiday celebrated in Mexico in which family and friends pray for and remember friends and family...

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Me & My Goals Self Portrait

This was inspired by a New Jersey middle school posting you can see  HERE . Drawing just the top face allows a focus on the eyes, and the be...

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Modigliani Style Portrait

Amedeo Modigliani was a late-century European artist who never lived to see his success, but his paintings are some of my all-time favorit...

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Back to School Portrait, Rizzi Style

An American pop artist, James Rizzi , who achieved fame for his childlike style, vibrant colors and zany imagery. He accumulated quite a bod...

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Back to School Stick Portrait

Drawing stick people is usually a no-no for older students that are capable of doing more, but I’m thinking it might be fun to make them a s...

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Masking Tape Portrait

This is another way of getting lots of irregular torn edges, without the fuss of gluing them down. I used blue painter’s tape to make thi...

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Hundertwasser Portraits

I’m hooked on the Vienna artist Hundertwasser, so I thought I would try combining his style with my popsicle portrait project. I think his a...

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Recycle Mosaic Faces

I was wishing for some pretty colored paper to collage with when I realized my stash of recycled food boxes would do the trick. I save these...

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Abstract Portrait: A Lesson in Cropping

To crop a picture is to remove outer parts to accentuate the subject matter. Chuck Close was famous for making portraits of people extremely...

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Close Up Portrait

I've found that drawing a portrait of another person from a photo can sometimes help students see more details than usual. 1. Find close...

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Wild Side/Calm Side Self-Portraits

This lesson starts with a discussion about how lines and colors can show emotion. A great book to read first is "Don't Let the Pige...

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Back To School Portraits

I'd been looking for a different approach to self-portraits for a back-to-school project. I wanted something that would ask the students...

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A Kinder Portrait

Sometimes when a student gets to use a new media for the first time, like oil pastels, a visible excitement can be seen the results. These k...

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My Summer Self Portrait

I'd been exploring ideas for a back-to-school project combining art with story telling much like a popular art journal technique, in lar...

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Fauve Portraits

The primary mission of Fauve artists in the late 1800's was to work with vibrant and unnatural color. Van Gogh, Gauguin and other artist...

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Self-Portrait Painting

Years ago I taught my first self-portrait project in my son's 2nd grade classroom. They've since become a favorite of students and t...

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Chuck Close Self Portrait

Chuck Close is an American painter and photographer who first achieved fame as a photorealist. This project, which imitates his style, take...

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Paul Klee Portrait

Paul Klee was a Swiss artist from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His “Head of A Man” i...

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Arcimboldo “Fruit Face”

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian artist from the 1500s who spent years working as an official court painter. He developed a style of compo...

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Me & My Goals Self Portrait

This was inspired by a New Jersey middle school posting you can see HERE . Drawing just the top face allows a focus on the eyes, and the beg...

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