At the end of last year the girls were drawing self portraits as school. They came home with lots of drawings and paintings of themselves at the end of the year and each chose one of their self portraits to be framed and included in the school art show.
Inspired by this we decided to draw portraits of various family members to give as Christmas gifts.
We got out some family photos and together we talked about how each person looked.
What shape was their face? Their eyes?
Was their hair long or short? Curly or straight?
What was their mouth like?
What about their ears? Do they have ear rings?
What other things make this person look like them?
Then we got out some nice fine black pens and some bright white paper and set to work. (The three year old used a pencil because he had trouble managing the pressure needed to make a satisfying line with the pens. I went over his in pen later).
There were a few early problems getting the shape of the head right, but once that was sorted it was all systems go!
Pictured above are portraits of two aunts drawn by the girls, and an uncle (which is a surprisingly good likeness) drawn by Muski.
Then we found a pile of plain wood frames from ikea and inspired by a blog post which I now can’t find (darn it I was sure I book marked this one!) we used our water colour paints to ‘stain’ the frames in various complimentary colour ways. All framed up they made extra special presents!
Find more great ideas for play and learning over at Childhood101′s We Play!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great idea for a gift … I know my little girl would love doing this :)
And when they are a little bigger you could get the kids to stitch their pictures onto some calico… ;) just thinking ahead for you :P
They look fabulous – would make a wonderful Mother’s Day present for grandmothers!
What a great idea, I’ll have to bookmark this myself for next Christmas :)
All the recipients in my household agree we love the portraits :-) Some of us even use them as our facebook photo…
What a cool idea. Why haven’t I thought of this before. I was looking for some easy to make yet creative crafts and you’re the answer to that. By the way, I find your blog so influential and this eco-friendly fashion might interest you in inspiring others to be eco-conscious. Thanks a lot!