Self Portraits in Gauche

I didn't have time earlier, but I wanted to post this part of the animation project with the children. I took photos of each child with his/her head down and eyes closed as if they were asleep. The following day I had them use gauche to create self portraits. I had them create a wet wash first. The lesson I learned was not to have them sketch themselves until the wash was dried, otherwise they attempted to paint around the figure, rather than create a free form background. After the background layer of guache was dried, I encouraged them to look back and forth to the photo as they drew their sketch in pencil. Then using a more dry brush technique, they painted them selves. I think the results were really nice and created the dream effect we were going for.







































Mitchell's self portrait and photo.














Kadin did two self portraits based on this photo. It was amazing to see the difference in quality of her paintings.
















In the first painting, Kadin did not look at her photo, but rather, sort of created the image from her imagination. I also had not given her instruction to do the wet brushed background before she sketched.















Below is Kadin's second portrait. This time she created a wash background first and then sketched. She really looked back and forth to her photo a lot. I think this is a wonderful portrait.















Cole did not look back and forth to his photo, but I still think this one is successful.














Brittany's sleeping portrait.

Cassie's sleeping portrait.















Edward's Sleeping portrait.