|
Have
you ever asked yourself "Who
am I?" Artists reflect who they are and
what they believe in every piece of art
they produce. Self portraits,
however, are artworks through which the
artist closely examines and tries to
reproduce their own physical likeness
on paper, canvas, in sculpture, etc..
Today we will examine
our own faces and create a self-portrait
on paper with pencil
and colored markers.
- 9" x
12" or 11" x 14" bond
paper
- Pencils
and erasers
- Colored
markers
- Mirrors
- Examples
of self portraits in books or posters (suggest VanGogh,
Warhol, Rembrandt, or any other recognizable artists)
- Set up your mirror on the table
where you can see your face and your
drawing paper without having to strain.
For this exercise you will be moving
your eyes only back and forth from your
paper to the mirror. Your body and head
should stay posed while your eyes do
all the work.
- The most popular pose for self-portraits are a 3/4 pose. Instead of a full
frontal view where everything about the face is symmetrical, a 3/4 pose reveals
one full side of the face including the ear on that side and a partial view
of the other side of the face with that ear totally hidden. For your portrait
you can choose either a full view or a 3/4 view. Take a minute to study your
face in the mirror. (For this you can move your head around.)
- Notice that your head is not
a circle shape but more of an egg shape.
When you draw your head shape on your
paper make sure that it is not a simple
circle. Also notice that your eyes are
not at the top of your face but right
in the middle. Your forehead takes up
the whole top half of your head! Draw
your eyes in the middle of the oval.
Be sure to draw a suggestion of an upper
lid and don't forget the eyebrows. If
you look closely at your iris (the colored
part of the eye), you'll notice that
the outline of the iris is darker in
color than the rest of the iris and that
the whole iris and pupil may or may not
be visible. Look closely!
- Now, halfway in between your
eyes and the chin falls the bottom of
your nose. Notice that when you look
closely at your nose, it is not defined
by a line but by shadows. This is difficult
to reproduce on paper so try drawing
your nose as a line defining just half
of the nose. If you want to try drawing
it as shadow, notice that one side
of your nose is darker than the other
side, a bright highlight runs right down
the middle, and your nose casts a shadow
on your upper lip.
- Now for the lips. Notice that
one of your lips is a darker color than
the other. This is because one lip typically
sticks out further than the other and
hence catches more light. Try not to
draw the outline of your lips. Instead
draw the line that falls in between
your two lips. In fact it is one of the
darkest lines on your face. And this
line's ends are directly in line with
the pupils of the eyes. For a realistic
pair of lips, draw this dark line, a
shadow below the lower lip, and a faint
or partial line defining the upper lip.
- The top of the ear is on the
same line as the eyes and the bottom
of the ears is on the same line as the
tip of the nose. Pay attention to your
earlobe. Some people's lobes are attached
to their neck and some people's lobes
hang loosely.
- Your neck attaches below the
ear lobes. Be sure you draw a strong
neck that attaches properly...How would
you hold your head up with a shoestring
for a neck?
- Lastly, include hair, clothing,
jewelry, or anything else that you are
wearing or might want to include in your
portrait that helps define who you are.
- Color your portrait with markers
or colored pencils. Now that you know
the basic proportions of the head, ask
your mom, dad,
uncle, cousins, dog or cat to pose
for you and you can create a portrait
for them too!
Symmetry – an
exact, regular, balanced
arrangement of forms on either side of
a central axis, one side of which mirrors
the other.
Asymmetry – the
absence of precise symmetry in a work
of art.
Hogarth, Burne. Drawing the Human Head. Watson-Guptill Publications, New York.
1989.
Sheaks,
Barclay. Drawing Figures and Faces. Davis Publications, Mass.
1987.
Tiner,
Ron. Figure Drawing Without a Model. David and Charles Books,
New Abbot, UK. 1982.
Top
Back to Lesson Plans
|
