After reviewing contour drawing and blind contour drawing with my high school students, their assignment was to create a piece that had multiple portraits drawn in a non-realistic style. They could do simple line drawings or find an interesting way to draw and paint 3, 5, or 7 portraits, one of which should be of themselves. Honestly, I thought this would be a fun, easy project for them. A lot of them struggled because they didn't like the wacky, non-realistic drawings they came up with. I told them "the weirder, the better"! I did some examples for them. Two of them have only the one face to demonstrate how I wanted them to be "off" with their facial features and proportions and to create interest with lines and color.
These are my examples:
The students finally got into the swing of things and started having fun with their projects. After drawing the portraits in pencil, they added watercolor. Finally they added details using a black Sharpie or black colored pencil.
Overall, the students had a lot of fun creating their projects. Many of my students are in class just to receive a credit. It's always fun to see them create something they really like!
