Symbolic Self-portrait class project

A fun and rewarding studio art project is the Symbolic Self-portrait. To do this you will need a projector and some large coloured paper.

Step 1: tape a piece of large coloured paper to the projector screen

Step 2: have each student come up one at a time and sit on a chair in profile in front of the projector screen and shine the projector towards the screen (this creates a shadow profile of the student on the paper that you taped up)

Step 3: trace the outline of the student's profile on the paper (or have students work in pairs to trace each others' profiles)

Step 4: have students brainstorm things that represent their identity

Step 5: have students research visual references for their chosen symbols and items

Step 6: have students organize the space inside their traced profile to draw their symbols using the reference images they found