PIECES OF SELF

CHARCOAL SELF-PORTRAITS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

charcoal on newsprint

I love this exercise.  

Both the kids and I never know what results to expect.

For most all of them it's the very first time they are attempting a self-portrait.

I have them draw their reflections from the glass doors where we store our clay.

This is a prelude to loosen them up before they attempt a serious self-portrait study.

Of course they are very self-conscious at first

 because they know they are being watched covertly by my other kids at the lower level.

But once they get started

 they slip into the right side of their brain

and start to draw more realistically.

It's at this point that I take their pix and they aren't even aware that I am.

hee hee

They only get this one class period to loosen up.

So here they are from left to right,

seniors Malaya Sithichai, Ayesha Durrani, Eileen Lee, Jazzarie Lo, Kevin Ma 

& junior Samantha Tun.

Now that they know I'm taking their picture,

and that they are done with this high pressure exercise;

they all look so relieved.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

PRELIMINARY CHARCOAL SELF-PORTRAIT

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

charcoal on newsprint

At the end of 4th quarter this last school year,

the final for my Intermediate students was to draw a self-portrait.

For several of them , 

this was their first time.

So I gave them a piece of newsprint and an hour to get to know themselves.

They used the clay storage refrig. doors to look at themselves,

and went deep into right brain to pull these off.

For the students in the Beginning 2-D class & myself,

it was really fun to watch them work.

This was a prelude exercise to the actual Self-Portrait assignment.

From left to right we have seniors Hazel Cruz, 

Katherine Ku,

Risha Bhakta,

Bernice Lin & Kyla Balquin.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

PRELIMINARY CHARCOAL SELF-PORTRAITS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

charcoal on newsprint

A super fun assignment before we go into traditional Self-Portraits

 is to put a piece of paper up on the glass doors and have the kids draw themselves

in one class period.

That's all they get so it forces them to dig right in.

For many of them this is the first time to try a self-portrait

and they are scared it's not going to look good.

The pressure is unbelievable!

Plus they know the other kids in the Beginning class are peeking at them while they draw.

But after the first five minutes they go into Right Brain

and tune everybody out

and really get into it.

The finished results are always terrific,

and usually several of the kids surprise themselves with how well they performed.

From left to right we have senior Michael Cantu,

juniors Elias Rodriquez and Jonathan Hsu,

and seniors Jovani Garcia and Nathan Chong.

Here is a close up of Jonathan's.

The boys seemed to like his best because they felt it was the most complete

and looked so much like him.

I also threw in a recent self-portrait by alumni Anne Allan who graduated last year 

and is now in art school up at San Jose State.

I would guess this is a bit more than an hour study she did of herself in charcoal.

I feel it's quite wonderful because of her use of varied thicknesses of line,

and I also am impressed with how she captured both light and darks so effortlessly.

Plus it looks just like her!

Bravo Anne!!

45 MInutes...Go!

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

PRELIMINARY SELF-PORTRAIT

charcoal

 That's all I gave them plus a bit of charcoal to try and capture themselves in a very short amount of time.

This really breaks the ice as they began their final project, their Self-Portrait.

They did this one by looking at their image in the glass door where we store the clay.

Sadly senior Justin Hwang was absent that day so he didn't make the photo, but here are the other 5 kids in my Intermediate class.

From the left: seniors Kathy Luo, Heather Warner, Alex Lee, Anne Allan and Jasmine Zhao

Anne added a touch of color to hers, and Kathy managed to capture a very serious young woman.

Both girls really managed to capture themselves.

In this last photo, we see senior Justin Hwang's prelim on the far right.

He was the senior who was absent on the day the kids did this so he completed it the next day when he returned.

I look forward to showing you their final Self-Portraits in the weeks ahead.