Mrs. Levine's Art Room : BEGINNERS . . . Our portraits as a doll!

Saturday, November 12, 2016

BEGINNERS . . . Our portraits as a doll!

Drawn portrait by Elijah

Artists in Lower School are presenting their self-portraits in our art exhibition in Panther Hall gallery and Beginner artists are proud to have their artwork right there on the wall with all of their older friends! These drawings are wonderful and spontaneous depictions of how they perceive the world. It is an exciting discovery in self-expression and creative pride that begins as early as Beginner classes at Ranney School.

Can you picture the well known M&M cartoon character with his arms and legs coming out of the head of the round candy? You might see this same characterization in any child's drawing. As young artists perceive people around them, the face is the most important element, and everything (such as arms and legs) are simply extensions of the face. There might be a body between the head and the legs, but in their eyes, it is not as important to recognize or represent in their artwork.

To help our Beginners move forward beyond an M&M drawing, they drew their head and faces after practicing circle drawings, and then made an important decision about what color they would like their shirts to be. Creating a body with their color choice was just a matter of another circle in the portrait and then filling it in. Arms and legs are often single lines at this point in their creative development, but they were encouraged to have them extend out of their body and not their heads.

To show each artist how important their color choices were, I selected fabric to match the color the drawings were made in and I embroidered the faces exactly as they were created on paper. Creating a softie doll out of each drawing was like bringing the Beginner portraits to life! To see all of our Lower School portraits, make sure you stop by Panther Hall Gallery. The exhibit will be on through December. Enjoy this preview of our youngest artists . . .