Self-portait artwork

I hope everyone had a great first week of school.  Currently, we have several bulletin boards of artwork around the school featuring students' self-portraits.  We actually made these at the end of last year so that we could have some beautiful work on display when everyone came back to school.  Students made monochromatic portraits using shades and tints of one color.  Have you found yourself?  (Special thanks to another awesome art teacher out there who posted this idea on her blog...I can't remember who you are, and I'm sorry about that.  But it's a terrific idea).

Today with the first graders we read I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont.  It's a book about a kid who paints his entire body with crazy patterns and bright colors (much to the horror of his mother!).  The kids love this book with it's rhyming, predictable words and the splashes of color on every page.  The students then drew their self-portraits and splatted paint over top.  Oh what fun!

Image courtesy of www.mudpuddlestoys.com