2nd Grade Underwater Self-Portraits (2015)

Second graders loved Robert Wyland so much that we did two projects inspired by him. Out first was Warm and Cool Waves, the second were these AWESOME underwater self-portraits inspired by this, this AND this project via pinterest.

I Can statements: I Can draw a self-portrait with my features in the correct places. I Can draw a sea creature realistically.

Day 1: To kick off the project we looked at portrait photographs that were taken underwater and discussed what looked the same and different as above water. 

I showed them this video of Wyland painting underwater to connect back to Wyland. How freaky and awesome would it be to paint underwater!?

After all this chatting we got to work drawing the self-portraits. I did a draw along with them up on the SMART Board to help guide where to put features and how to draw the snorkel and mask.

Day 2: I checked out a large variety of sea animal books from the library and had them look through the books and choose a sea creature they wanted to draw. Before they added it to their portrait they had to practice drawing it using the books and attempt to make it look more realistic. I really pushed drawing from the images and not from their minds. This was a little difficult of a concept for them, but by the last group of 2nd graders, I finally found the right way to describe what I meant. When their practice was done I gave them their portrait to add the creature to. Nearing the end of class we came back together to talk about what good coloring looks like with crayons and how to achieve it so those that were ready to color could start.

Day 3: Refreshed our coloring discussion and then they got busy coloring. When the first few were done coloring, I showed my demo of using liquid blue watercolor to do a wash over the entire page. I really made a point to explain that any paper that was showing was going to turn blue so "bad coloring" would be really visible. Make sure they color the white of their eyes or their will possibly be tears when they turn blue....

  

These just make me so incredibly happy to look at!