Christmas Idea: Cheater Water Color Portraits

This tutorial appeared last year on my teaching blog. Since I am taking a break with that blog, I thought I would update it and move it over here.

Last year at school for the Red Ribbon Week Door Contest I was inspired by a family portrait idea from Family Fun magazine. It was part of their frugal handmade gift ideas article. Their idea involved using vellum paper to trace a photo before painting it.  I came up with my own Cheater Self Portraits that used fewer supplies and worked out well for fourth graders with little experience with water colors. We won the contest which was bragging rights enough for me, but the Crayons were excited about the prize- a Battleship board game too.

Here's my tutorial for Watercolor (Cheater) Self Portraits:

Supplies:
drawing paper cut to 8.5" X 11"
water colors
a digital picture
a computer with internet access

1. Take a picture with your digital camera. I think a close up or a relatively simple scene would work best. (This picture is not of a student but, from an ad.)

2. Go to Picnik and upload the photo(s) for free! Choose their "create" menu and then scroll down the special effects until you find the one that is called "Pencil Sketch." Apply that effect to your picture.

3. Print the picture out on the drawing paper. (Any kind of drawing paper-thicker than photocopy paper.) At work I have access to a laser printer. At home I used an inkjet and I found worked well even with water colors. Just be sure to let the print out dry a bit before beginning.

4. Paint the picture with water colors. Nothing fancy here, you know -the kind that come in a thin tin at school.  Less is more. It's nice to let a little of the print come through. It makes the details like a nose, much easier.

I gave my students two copies so that they could practice controlling the paint and mixing colors. I had to help some with the eyes since the pictures were so small. I would go with a larger 5"X7" to make it easier, but I had to fit 25 portraits on my doors. It took two hour long sessions to complete.

 
Here is one that I made for my colleague. It was pretty easy for me to do this in an hour or so. You can click on the picture to see it larger at Flickr. There you can see the printed details that show through. Nowadays with so much online photo sharing, it would be pretty easy to sneak and download a friend's picture and surprise them with a framed watercolor. For more frugal ideas, head over to the Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday. For more Christmas ideas, head on over to the Inspired Room.