Art & Lit 2022 |Collectively You Portrait

Instructions

Step 1 – Reflection & Brainstorming. Who are you when you are not putting on a mask? Think of important experiences, memories, and elements of your identity that help make up the real you and your story. Ask yourself these questions, writing your responses in your journal:

• Which type of people, activities, or situations make you feel the most alive?

• Which type of people, activities, or situations make you feel down, fake, or invisible?

• In these situations, what’s going on? Who you are with? What is happening? What emotions or results come from these experiences?

Step 2 – Partner Drawing. Work with a partner to create a starter portrait of yourself. If you don’t have a partner, you can use a mirror to look at yourself and draw what you see. Take the transparent sheet and marker from your kit. Hold the clear sheet up loosely to your face and keep it steady while your partner carefully outlines your face, eyes, nose, lips, eyebrows, and hair on the clear sheet with the marker. Now repeat the steps to trace your partner’s face on the clear sheet from their kit.

Step 3 – Story Sharing. While you are tracing each other’s faces, consider sharing parts of who you are that people may not know. What assumptions do you think people make about you? If you are doing this part on your own, consider moments when you were surprised to learn something about someone or when someone may have been surprised to learn something about you.

Step 4 – Add Details. Think about the features your partner outlined and what you want to add to complete the picture of yourself. Use marker to add other details that might have been missed, but that make up you (such as freckles, big lashes, scars, etc.). Cut shapes from the adhesive foam to highlight and add details and ideas to your portrait.

Step 5 – Include More. Think about the brainstorming you did in your journal. Pick 3-4 ideas that tell more about your story. Using the marker, add drawings that represent these ideas to the clear sheet around your portrait. Cover the space around your face by gluing pieces of tissue paper around it. If you choose, cover the things you want to keep to yourself and leave the things you want to share with the world uncovered. You will still be able to see the parts you are keeping to yourself on the other side of the clear sheet.

Step 6 – Reflect & Share Your Portrait! Reflect on the things you chose to cover and reveal. Why did you make those choices? What would it take to reveal the things you chose to cover? Now that you have finished, share your portrait with others. Explain how you made it. Tell them how the portrait represents you, explaining some of the choices you made and new ideas you gained from it. If someone shows you their art, tell them one detail you appreciate or notice the most?

Share your creations with us at [email protected]!