Suffield Kindergarten Self-Portraits 2011-2012!

     Although I have now moved the art train over to Brimfield, I have some Suffield artwork that we finished up at the end of my 6 weeks there that I will be posting!

    I always start my kindergarten artists out with this self-portrait artwork.  It serves as a great introduction to art class because it has lots of steps that help me teach common artmaking procedures that we use over and over again.  The kindergartners learn to slow down and really focus on their drawing (we make these drawings one step at a time!), they learn how we paint in the art room (dip your brush in the water and then pull it up the side of the water bucket to get rid of excess water and don't tap!), and they learn to cut out their drawings with "white frosting" or "snow" around their black outlines so that none of their precious drawing gets snipped.  We also learn how to trace our drawings with Sharpies so they show up better and to flip our papers upside-down to better reach the top.

    We start the drawings by tracing t-shirt stencils that I made from tag board.  I always encourage students to start full-body drawings with the shirt first and then to just add the other body parts to it.  I think the t-shirt stencil really forces the kindergartners to draw big and gives everyone a strong starting point.  I will post a photo of one of the stencils when I post the portraits from Brimfield that we just started this week!