From the Inside Out

8th graders are starting portraiture today.....but not your typical portraits.  These self-portraits will represent who they are from the inside out...the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly.

Although the students did not realize it, we actually started this project several weeks ago when I gave them an assignment with the like name.  Their directions were to crumple, crinkle, or fold their paper according to whether or not the had participated in various activities or actions, all of which were negative.  Examples of these actions were....cheated on a test, bullied a classmate or even stood by while someone else got bullied.  At first, the students found humor in the assignment, some even bragging on their "accomplishments". But as they worked down the list, they began to complain that their papers had too many wrinkles, some even ripped and torn from their honesty.  A couple students did not like that their papers were becoming so wrinkled, they felt like there were bad people and wanted to start over, but they had to stick with their original paper no matter what the outcome.   As they were working, one girl made the observation that this was like real life....they couldn't undo what was already done.  Bingo!  She got it. After we finished the activity, we took the remaining portion of the class to talk about what this activity represented.  Students to could volunteer to share personal observations, thoughts, or concerns.  We discussed how everyone makes mistakes and does things that they are hopefully not proud of, that it is part of our past, but that it also does not have to be a part of our future.

So today we started with a demonstration on drawing proportional portraits. Students were encouraged to find their own style when drawing their self-portraits and we even utilized their personal devices for reference.  And in case you didn't figure it out, the portraits had to be drawn on those wrinkled, crumpled, and folded pieces of paper.  There were lots of groans and objections because they were unable to flatten out the paper like it was before they wrinkled it....but then that was the point.

Here are a few picture of the portraits in progress....there is much work to be done...more to come later as we start adding in the positive characteristics into the artwork.