Spirit Animal Self Portraits

Students learned about Spirit Animals/Animal Guides throughout different cultures. They built upon their progressive understanding of building basic shapes to achieve a successful drawing to depict their chosen animals on black paper which they decorated with metallic pastel. They then learned a basic approach to drawing more realistic portraits of themselves through a guided demo, and used mirrors to pick out specific details of their own features. Attention was focused on where the features are placed on the face and the inclusion of a hairline. They then colored in their portraits, in either pastel or watercolor pencil, working on blending. Lastly, they used an oil pastel to create a background resist which they painted over with watercolor paint, and attached their spirit animal(s) to the final piece having looked at imagery of Frida Kahlo totem animal paintings.