Some children looked in the mirror with such excitement as if they had never thought to look at those details before. I encouraged them to notice details such as eyelashes, eyebrows, the shape of their nose, and anything else like moles or freckles that are unique to their own faces. I had children choose to draw with either white oil pastel on black paper or black oil pastel on white paper.В With a mirror set up in front of them, children were then asked to study their faces. The Olive Side children were recently introduced to self-portraiture and we have simultaneously continued our study of black and white. Van GoghвЂ™s self-portraits show his evolving style of painting and give us a glimpse into his fascinating life and mind. These portraits are often a blend of who an artist is from the outside mixed with how he sees himself on the inside.

Van Gogh, one of my personal favorite artists, famously painted himself throughout different stages of his career, even representing himself bandaged after mutilating his own ear.В An artistsвЂ™ self-portrait is often introspection and tells a story of his or her life at that particular point in time through the use of color, the style or technique, and their expression or choice of clothing. Other artists like Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, and Frida Kahlo were known for creating many self-portraits throughout their careers. This work, called вЂњPortrait of a Man with Red Chalk,вЂќ is believed to be a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci from around 1510. Even artists from as early as the Renaissance were known to have created self-portraits. Self-portraits were a way for even the poorest artists to practice portraiture and develop their own techniques and skills without the need for a model. If you walk into any museum today, you are likely to see a self-portrait on display in any number of techniques or styles. Paper MachГ© Self-Portrait (via Hearts and Needles)Д®xplore paper machГ© to create a dimensional and textured self-portrait that can be painted with features afterwards.Artists have represented themselves through self-portraiture throughout the course of art history. Gather your favorite flowers and foliage to create these pretty nature-inspired self-portraits. Magazine Self-Portraits (via Le DADA de lвЂ™Enfant Terrible)Д¬utting out magazine or print media features often makes for hilarious self-expressions. Such an original idea for creating interesting self-portraits. Wire can be bent and formed to create shapes and expressions. Wire Self-Portraits (via Small Hands Big Art) These gorgeous masks are truly pieces of art with beautiful and unique self-expressions in each one. This unique canvas and paint self-portrait art project has a unique twist to make it look just like a large painted Polaroid!Д¬ardboard Painted Self-Portraits (via Handmakery) Polaroid Self-Portraits (via Make It Your Own) Create larger than life self portraits with this wonderful water color technique. Kids have big personalities so that sometimes needs to be translated to their art. Large Self-Portraits (via Flashbugs Studios) Get crafty with yarn, popsicle sticks, buttons and whatever you have in your craft drawers to create these fun self-portraits. Self-Portrait Collages (via The Art Dream) Loose Parts Self-Portraits (via Housing a Forest)ДЄ creative use of loose parts and hardware items to create dimensional and cool self-portraits. Modern Art Portraits (via Pink Stripey Socks)Д®xplore the works of great modern artists like Lichtenstein to create these brightly dotted self-portraits. We created these stick portraits for MichaelвЂ™s Crafts using family, friends and book characters as inspiration using our favorite colored pencils. Encourage kids to recreate their likeness using paper, felt, cardboard, paper machГ©, collages and more with these colorful self-expression art projects.Д®xplore using felt to make these one-of-a-kind, sensory self-portraits. WeвЂ™ve rounded up 12 awesome mixed media self-portrait projects kids can explore. One way to encourage creativity in kids is to ask them to look in the mirror and draw themselves! Self-portraits are a wonderful exercise in art exploration and can be created with many different mediums, not just pencil and paper.

Self-portraiture