Through their Eyes

We love chatting to our young artists about the art they enjoy making and will often bank the ideas they dream up and share with us in class to develop into future Art Room projects.  This week was such an occasion where our activity, sparked by a request to make portrait pictures, resulted in a wonderful afternoon of creative magic as we brought ourselves to life through paint!

Using A4 black and white photographs taken in a previous session, the children carefully traced the outlines of their faces onto clear sheets of acetate, paying close attention to their unique features. What began as simple, black pen lines quickly transformed into bold, lively works of art as the children layered on bright acrylic paints to the reverse of their drawings, animating their self-portraits with colour, personality, and imagination. The results were as individual and cheerful as the children themselves!

Leaning instinctively into feeling and enjoyment rather than worrying about accuracy, the children embraced a diverse colour palette and a new painting surface to present themselves through their own eyes. Favourite colours were chosen for hair styles, emotions appeared in thick, bold brush strokes and vibrant, expressive marks fizzed and popped in the background of their compositions to reflect the enthusiasm, honesty and vision of each young artist.

In their hands, the children transformed a simple traced outline into something wonderfully alive, reminding us that self-expression is as much about how we feel as how we look.