Portraits

For our first assignments my Art 2 students created portraits. We started by dedicating a few class periods to building skills with drawing facial features, proportion and value. 

Then I opened it up. 

I showed them work from a variety of current, contemporary portrait artists (and one or two classics) who create in a variety of styles as a starting point. 

Some chose to work with graphite, some with paint. Many decided to re-create treasured family photos. 

Some of the work was highly realistic, other pieces were more interpretative or even leaning towards abstract. 

I love what happens when student are pointed in the right direction, then allowed to develop their own voice and style. In this project, as always, my kids had something good to say.