Learning to Draw Self-Portraits

7th grade art studio class learned some great artist's tricks of how to draw self-portraits. They first drew their face using observational skills and looking in a mirror. They then studied the parts of a face, concentrating on proportions, eyes, noses, mouths and hair. Students redrew their faces. They found it easier to observe, measure and compare shapes and sizes of parts of the face when looking at a photograph of themselves. Comparing the two drawings side by side, you can see amazing differences in what these students have observed. 
Much of art is learning how to look carefully. When we can shut off the symbolic part of our brain that says an eye looks like this...and really look at the construction of an eye, we are able to draw much more realistically.


To see some of the artist's tricks yourself, go to: http://www.portrait-artist.org/basics/index.html

http://www.portrait-artist.org/face/