Expressive Line Self Portrait

Expressive Line Self Portrait

Objective: To create an expressive line self-portrait using a variety of lines, in warm & cool colors with a collaged background.

Step 1: Take a selfie—it will be a headshot, so think carefully about what expression you will make. Do you want to look silly, happy, angry, etc.? Print it out.

Step 2: Make a LINE drawing by tracing over your picture in pencil. Once you are happy with the drawing, go over the lines with a thin sharpie marker. Flip the paper over to look at your lines, and adjust accordingly to make sure you traced over all of the lines.

Step 3: Next, make a 1 INCH by 1 INCH grid over your line drawing on the back of your 8x10 paper.

Step 4: You will now enlarge your drawing onto a bigger piece of paper (16x20) using a 2 INCH by 2 INCH grid.

Step 5: Once the drawing is completed on the larger paper, you will go over all of your lines with a thick sharpie marker, ENHANCING or EMPHASIZING some of your lines. Make some lines thicker than others. The outer edge should be no thinner than ¼”.

Step 6: Break up the hair into different sections. Within each section, create different expressive lines IN PENCIL. You should have no less than 10 expressive lines represented.

Step 7: Pick a COLOR SCHEME: WARM (red, pink, orange, yellow) or COOL (blue, green, purple). This will be used in the background and areas of the portrait as accents. Watercolor newspaper in your color scheme and collage it onto your background. DO NOT PUT A LAYER OF MOD PODGE ON TOP.

Step 8: Go over your expressive lines in the hair with BLACK sharpie. Your hair is to remain black and white. Next, using the same color scheme you chose for the background, add accents to the portrait.

Step 9: Put a layer of Mod Podge on top of your collaged background.