Painting Self-Portraits with Four-Year-Olds

This is a great age to start self-portraits with kids.

It is one of my all time favorites.  :)

I thought I'd share a little tutorial with you if you're interested.

 

1.  I sit right next to the child and draw my own head.

I give them top and bottom marks as seen below.  Otherwise their circle or oval is usually very small.

I draw the ears, neck, and shoulders on my page and they mimic on their own paper.

 

2.  Next, they paint.

Skin color first, hair, and then their shirt.

 

I am always impressed with the hair!  ;)

 

3.  I let them dry overnight.  Next, I loosely outline their shapes with a sharpie marker.

4.  Sitting next to them again, we talk about how eyes are not just a black ball on your face.

They have eyelids, and eyeballs.  I show them how to draw a "football" shape and do the rest.

They mimic their own version.  I do the same thing with the nose and lips.

 

5.  I outline the nose and mouth shape for them, and then they use a small brush to paint the inside of their eyes, add eyebrows,  and any details they want on their shirt.

I love how original they all are.

 

 

 

The theme of our pre-school art show this year is "Fairy-Tale" ball, so we added metallic crowns to turn the self-portraits into princes and princesses.  :)

If you make any let me know.  I'd love to see them.
They make me happy!  :)