Art News recommended by Yong Chen : Painted faces

Painted faces
Arts & Activities, April, 2006 by Gina Humphreys Booth

Teaching students to draw faces is one of my favorite lessons. Coincidentally, learning to draw faces is one of the students' favorite lessons too. Through the many years I've taught art, I've observed that nearly every young student has an intense natural curiosity and desire to draw the human face.

When I first teach youngsters how to draw faces, I start with clown faces. With this age group, I have found it to be helpful to pre-draw a large oval for the face, thus preventing the children from working too small. Over the years, however, I've found that the transition from imaginary clown faces to realistic faces with correct facial proportions challenged the students. I wondered if I could develop a lesson that could help bridge the transition to more independently drawn faces.

Then one day, about 5 minutes before a class of second-graders arrived, it occurred to me to make an outline of a partially drawn face, which the students could use before finishing the whole face on their own.

I quickly drew the rough outline, ran to the school office, made photocopies and arrived back in class just in time to pass out one copy to each student. My impromptu idea worked wonderfully and turned out to be just the solution I was looking for.

Begin this project by giving each student a copy of the face outline (example of my version seen below) and a piece of white, 24"x 18" roll paper. Then, demonstrate how to place the outline directly under the center of the paper. For me, soft, thin, vine charcoal works best for this because it helps students keep details large. Plus, errors can be simply smudged away. However, a light-colored chalk could substitute for charcoal and, if using pencil, be sure children keep lines light enough to be erased and keep the facial details large.

After students have created their outline on the roll paper, show them how to create and finish a whole face: I suggest that students draw a "rainbow and a nickel" shape for the eyes, which go below the eyebrows. Mouths must be wider than the nose and should have an upper and lower lip.

The hat "brim" begins with a thin rectangle, wide enough so "rain won't fall on their ears." The "crown" of the hat will look too small unless the sides begin and end above the cheek lines. Encourage a variety of shapes for the hats--square, rounded or even rumpled will do.

Generally, boys will want to add ears, bangs and short hair, while girls may choose various hairstyles. Add an original shirt collar and other details as desired. Some students might want to have the eyes looking to the side instead of straight ahead. What about buttons or pockets? How about a feather or a flower in the hat? Another approach would be to suggest characters such as a queen with a crown, a cowboy with a hat, a sheriff with a badge or a nurse with a cap.

After all of the details are drawn, students outline the picture in black paint using a small, thin paintbrush in size 0 or 1. Watercolor could be used for the black outlines, but I prefer India ink. When using ink with children of this age, it's a good idea to place only tiny amounts of ink in small bottle lids, such as those from bottled water or soda pop. This not only conserves on ink, but also any spills that occur will be small and easily wiped away. Two students may share each cap of ink.

Everyone loves the next session: painting. Set out watercolor paint sets to share. Each student will need a paintbrush. With children this age, fill the cups of water used for rinsing paintbrushes only halfway to minimize spills. Shared bowls of watered-down tempera paint colors may be used if watercolor paint sets are not available.

I begin "painting day" by demonstrating how to paint skin color on the face and neck, keeping the skin color off the ink lines and outside the whites of the eyes. For skin, use watered-down tempera paint to create several shades, setting small plates of it at each table for sharing.

Next I show students how to use watercolors to paint the shirt and hair, stressing the addition of water, along with the paint, so that colors won't get darker than the ink outlines.

A third and final session is necessary for finishing up and adding a faded watercolor wash to the background. Show the students how to apply water first to the entire background, then adding small amounts of the watercolor paint and letting it spread out. Students who finish early may fill time by adding patterns and details to the clothes, hat or background.

With the paintings complete, I've found that with paper this thin, it gets so soggy students aren't able to carry finished pieces to the drying rack. To solve this problem, students can put drawing boards under their pieces before painting to provide needed support. Another idea would be to set paper towels on top of the finished picture to stick up excess moisture on the paper. Just be sure not to blot them down.

I must admit, when I first did this project I worried that the faces would all turn out alike. I wondered if tracing the face pattern was unoriginal, almost like cheating. I reasoned that with the "trace-a-face" patterns, it would ensure correct facial proportion.

When the paintings were complete my fears turned into relief. Although each student had started with the exact same pattern, every portrait had magically evolved into a completely unique and individual painting. In fact, when I look at each of the faces the youngsters created, I see a fun reflection into the many styles of personalities that make up a classroom of children.

Gina Humphreys Booth is a K-12 art teacher at Jasper School in Arkansas.

MATERIALS

* One copy of face outline per student

* 18" x 24" white paper from a roll

* India ink or black paint from a watercolor set

* Bottle caps to put small amounts of India Ink in

* Thin paintbrushes, size 0 or 1

* Various tones of skin-colored paint

* Watercolor paint sets

* Cup of water for each student (half filled)

* Soft, thin vine charcoal

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.

* describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses.

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