Hickory Creek students create self-portraits in art class

A recent eighth grade art project at Hickory Creek Middle School taught students how to use a grid technique to draw self-portraits.  The technique dates back to the Renaissance period of history and it is believed that even Michelangelo used a grid to paint portions of the Sistine Chapel.

The self-portrait is one of the projects that students complete in the drawing/painting classes taught by Hickory Creek Art Instructor Beth Rogers.  At any given time, she has four different projects going on in her classes, one project for sixth and seventh grade, and two projects for eighth grade.  Eighth graders can take either a sculpture or a drawing/painting class and some of the eighth grade students take both of the classes.

In the current drawing/painting classes, each student used a black and white photo of themselves to draw a self-portrait using the grid technique.  They drew a grid over their photograph and another grid on a larger, blank piece of paper.  Across the top of the grid, they put numbers above each vertical column of squares.  Along the side of the grid they used letters of the alphabet next to each horizontal row of squares.  Going square-to-square, they use the grids like coordinates on a map to draw their features from the photograph to the corresponding grid on the blank page.  The grid squares help the artist to isolate shapes of their facial features such as where on the grid their eyes fall in relation to their noses.

While the students worked on their portraits, Ms. Rogers used a sample photograph on a projected image to call attention to certain aspects of the drawing.  As students were about to begin to draw their eyes, she stated, “Last week we talked about a general football shape for eyes but your eyes are very specific to you.  They are not exactly a football shape.  On my photograph the top eyelid is much more arched.  There are tiny little differences, so just use the football shape as a guideline because no one’s eyes are the same as anyone else’s.” As students continued their drawings, Ms. Rogers walked around to each table to give individual pointers to them, often offering encouragement such as “wow, very nice” or “that looks awesome.”  She also worked with them individually to give advice on more complex characteristics of the drawings such as eyebrows or the “parentheses lines” on the sides of the nose.

The drawing of the self-portrait is only the beginning of this project.  The final project will be entitled “What Are You Thinking?” After the self-portrait portion of the project is completed, students will transfer it to a larger paper where they will use watercolors to paint the background and add illustrations and words above their self-portraits to demonstrate what they are thinking. 

Hickory Creek art projects will be on display at Lincoln-Way Artworks, as well as the District 157-C Family School Partnership organization’s Creative Arts Showcase. 

Hickory Creek Principal, Dr. Kevin Suchinski, is proud of the students’ work.  He stated, “Beth has been putting together a display of student artwork and has a ton of artwork to showcase.  We have amazing young artists under the tutelage of Beth!”