More Selfies, Salvador Dali Style

Grade 4/5: Drawing Self-Portraits, with a Twist (literally)

Salvador Dali. How much fun can one have with one’s face? Long before we had goofy IPhone twisting photographs, he was doin’ it with his moustache. Ha!

It is hard enough to draw oneself and be satisfied with the result. For a class that was relatively new to me, I know it is pushing it to ask this of them. So, we took it to a slightly more fun level. I showed them some examples of Dali’s paintings (ones they might recognize and not get too hung up on the content …), briefly explaining Surrealism. I quickly went on to describing how Salvador took that onto his own face with a not-so-seriously waxed moustache. Awesome!

I had each of them start to rough out their portrait in pencil, with directions just to do a head and shoulders view. I counselled them not to make that drawing too small, because we wanted a good amount of detail AND we would need room for the later – uh- addition. Think of the geometrics of the head and facial features, and the placement of those in relation to one another. Once they got the basics down, I switched them to continue with charcoal sticks. Small and delicate they were, and the renderings that resulted reflect that. Some students were resistant to using the charcoal – it’s a new thing. It even has to be held differently.

Eventually, all but one tried it and worked on shading and bringing up the details. I could be heard saying things like “Draw what you see in the mirror, not just you think a nose should be like” or “These are not cartoon drawings – look for the lights and the darks – the highlights and the shadows. Dark makes it go back, light comes forward. This helps to make it look more three-dimensional.” I worked through the class, responding one-on-one to questions and concerns. Their reactions to their drawings was overall good, though mixed. The next step was to give the background (only the background) colour. They could choose two or three chalk pastels to fill in, leaving their portrait drawings in blacks/greys and whites.

The final step at the end of the class was the moustache. I gave them each a pipe cleaner, and they were to twist a Dali moustache for their portrait (and wear it themselves until we got it attached, of course). I hot glued them on at the end, to save time. C’est fini. Double Ha!