National Gallery of Canada
Who Are You?
What can a self-portrait reveal about an artist? Discuss various self-portraits before tasking your pupils with creating their own. Learners research artists, develop an idea of their own individuality, and create photo collages with...
Digital Wish
Illustration: Self Portrait in a Masterpiece
Technology and art combine in a creative lesson. Kids discuss portrait art and they search online and save a portrait created by one of their favorite artists. They have their picture taken exactly like their chosen portrait, then...
Curated OER
Self-Portraits
Sixth graders create self-portraits. In this visual arts instructional activity, 6th graders examine the relationship between mood and color value in pieces of art. Students create self-portraits that convey mood using cut paper and glue.
Curated OER
Chatty Cherry Stories
Young artists will respond to reading children's literature, by engaging in original storytelling and representing their own images through the visual arts. Then they orally describe details of people, places, and things in their stories...
Curated OER
Painting Faces: Interpreting Portraits
Over the course of four sessions, upper elementary learners explore the elements of visual art and portraiture and the work of Canadian painter Robert Harris (links included). (Paintings by any portrait artist will fit the plan; choose...
Curated OER
Cubist Self-Portrait
Study Cubism and Cubist art by examining a number of images with your students. They look at the relationship of Cubism to society architecture, and literature. Finally, they design a Cubist self-portrait using a variety of mediums after...
Curated OER
Portraits of the Artist
Students reflect on the different roles they have for themselves in a journal entry. After reading an article, they discover information on the life of Rembrandt. In groups, they examine the roles of Rembrandt in his self-portrait and...
Curated OER
You Are What You Eat!
Students create believable self-portraits incorporating selected food items as details, forms, and texturesThe compositional focus is a head-and-shoulders portrait appropriate to the food theme resulting in a humorous illustration....
Curated OER
Self-portrait Projects
Teacher discusses drawing of facial features with students. They then research facial features of famous artists and children's illustrators on the Internet. Students then will create a self-portrait using paper and pencil.
Curated OER
Visual Arts- 3D Self-Sculpture
Students construct three dimensional self-portraits. In this visual arts lesson, students use clay to create a self-portrait. Students make the clay and discuss their self-portrait.
Curated OER
Self Portraits Part 2
Sixth graders explore the concept of Cubist art. For this visual arts lesson, 6th graders examine examples of Pablo Picasso's work and they create self portraits in Cubist style.
Curated OER
Mixed-Media Self-Portrait with Symbols
Middle schoolers watch segments of a video to explore portraits. They create a self portrait using mixed-media.
Curated OER
Self-Portrait of the Artist
Learners analyze the self-portraits by Pablo Picasso. In this art analysis activity, students explore Picasso's direct self-portraits and symbolic self-portraits. Learners complete image based discussion. Students create an alter ego and...
Curated OER
Retablo-Style Self-Portraits
Students design tinfoil self-portraits based on the work of Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican painter. They study the style of this Mexican artist before making their own portraits.
Curated OER
Self-Promotion
Middle schoolers create "assemblage boxes" displaying representations of themselves and the importance they see in their own lives. This middle school level lesson emphasizes the art of American artist Sarah Goodridge who has success in...
Curated OER
Self Portraits
Students study themselves in a mirror paying close attention to every attribute on their face. For this self portrait lesson students create a self portrait the same way as Rembrandt has done many times. Students also ask themselves a...
Curated OER
Self Portraits
Third graders complete a unit on the writing process that focusses on the self-portraits of Rembrandt and Norman Rockwell. They create their own self-portraits and write autobiographical sketches. They also research the lives of the...
Sargent Art
Warhol-like Color Study
The lithographs of pop artist Andy Warhol inspire a instructional activity that asks young artists to try their hand at creating a study that demonstrates the effect color has on design. After drawing a self-portrait, participants paint...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: The Self in the Other's Image: Portraiture and Identity
Art, identity, and an imaginary community, three components that should make for an interesting lesson. Critical thinkers explore and evaluate the work of contemporary artist, Elizabeth Peyton. They discuss her use of subject and art to...
Curated OER
Self Portrait using watch parts and tin - Mixed media
Students create whimsical self portraits using watch parts and tin - recycling. They demonstrate safety in using tools. They use a variety of materials to create a work of art , and demonstrate understanding of the elements and...
Curated OER
Self-portrait In a Masterpiece: Computer Illustrations
Students create a self-portrait using an artistic masterpiece as a guide. In this art appreciation lesson, students research famous artists online, electronically saving a particular portrait or masterpiece made by the artist....
Curated OER
"Where's Waldo" About Me Drawing - Self "Portrait"
Students identify the cultural clues found within art forms by producing a work of art based on their personal experiences and create a work of art about themself. They recognize how technical elements affect art and how to implement...
Sargent Art
Facial Proportion Challenge: Freaky Faces
Young artists have fun making freaky faces when they accept the challenge of making proportional portraits. They must find pictures in magazines, cut out two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and then rescale these images into a portrait.
Curated OER
The Voice of the Individual
Young learners explore the role of the individual within society. They view art work, design calling cards, and display their work. Additionally, learners document an imaginary trip, create sculpted self-portraits, create a class play, a...