Paul Klee Inspired Self-portrait

Next we moved onto self portraits. 1st graders looked at the work of Paul Klee and created a drawing based on lessons I found on several different websites. I gave them an oval template to trace for the shape of their head. We discussed the proper proportions to use when drawing a portrait and how to draw facial features. Students drew themselves and outlined in sharpie. The next class we began adding tissue paper by wetting our drawing, placing a square of tissue paper down and adding water on top of that. They filled up their drawing with rows of colored tissue paper making sure to use plenty of water. When dry, the tissue paper easily peeled off leaving a stain from the color behind. This was a very easy fun process that the kids enjoyed.

Paul Klee Inspired Scratch Art

We started by looking at artist Paul Klee's Golden Fish. We talked about what the focal point of his painting was and how we knew that (in the center, bigger, brighter). We also looked at the details and textures in his painting. Students made their own scratch paper by coloring with oil pastels in diagonal lines. They then used the width of a ruler to measure a border and colored the inner rectangle with black oil pastel. They were then able to use a toothpick to scratch away at their paper to reveal the colors underneath. We used an ocean theme and had to include an obvious focal point.