The Big Self Portrait Poster Project

As a thank you to parents and the school for supporting me in my Square 1 Art fundraiser, I am going to give the gift of art to everyone. My students are creating self-portraits in various forms. I am going to have grade level posters made of the portraits to give the students. Each student will receive a poster that has their art along with their entire grade level on it. I am also having a mural created with each portrait on it to hang up as a permanent art installation in the school. I varied the types of self portraits the students created. Kinders created Roger Hargreaves inspired "Little Miss" and "Mr. Men" portraits. 1st grade created abstract portraits. 2nd-4th grade created realistic portraits that showed their individual personalities and 5th grade concentrated on their eyes. Some grade levels did my "2 Stars and a Wish" critique after completing the art. They gave great feedback to each other. 

Here are some photos of their incredible and awesome art. 

I love this students interpretation of the eye focused project. He said it didn't show the eyes yet it was all about the eyes. What an amazing thinker. Some students didn't get it but I totally get it. I told him it's an "artist-thing".

5th Grade LVAA Grant Project: In progress!

I have started putting the 5th grade glazed tiles to form our mural. They did a great job of following their glaze maps. I am currently outlining the images to make them pop. Next is firing them in my kiln.

5th Grade LVAA Clay Tile Mural Project

After practicing with oil based clay and learning clay vocabulary and more, my 5th grade is finishing their tile mural project. This project was funded by a grant I received from the Louisville Visual Art Association. The portrait tiles will be put together to form our school mascot, a dolphin, after they are fired in my kiln. I may be art on a cart but I've made it work!

Carolyn Braden: LVAA 5th Grade Grant Tile Project

While waiting for my kiln to be ready for use, we are prepping to start our LVAA (Louisville Visual Art Association) funded tile project. Fifth grade students will be creating 4-inch low relief self portrait tiles. When they paint their tile, they must follow a painting diagram I created. After the tile mural is assembled, viewers will see the self portraits when standing close, then see our school mascot, the dolphin, when standing further away. See my diagram in the photo below. Some classes will start sketches next week.