Art and Design · Year 2 · Lines, Marks, and Making · Autumn Term

Self-Portraits with Emotion

Creating self-portraits that express a specific emotion using learned drawing techniques.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: Art and Design - Drawing and Portraits

About This Topic

Self-portraits with emotion guide Year 2 students to draw their faces while conveying feelings like happy, worried, or excited. They use techniques such as thick and thin lines, wavy marks, and varied pressure to alter expressions. Observing themselves in mirrors, students experiment with facial features and share portraits for partners to guess the emotion. This meets KS1 Art and Design standards for developing drawing skills and portraiture.

The activity strengthens self-awareness and visual communication. Students notice how line direction and weight change a face's mood, for instance, soft curves for happiness or jagged strokes for worry. Peer feedback sharpens their choices and builds vocabulary for describing art.

Active learning benefits this topic through hands-on mirror practice and collaborative guessing games. These approaches make emotions visible and iterable, boosting confidence as students refine work based on real responses from classmates.

Key Questions

1. Draw a self-portrait that shows one feeling , like happy, worried, or excited.
2. How can making your lines thicker or thinner change how a face looks?
3. Show your portrait to a partner , can they guess which feeling you drew?

Learning Objectives

• Create a self-portrait that visually communicates a chosen emotion using varied line weight and pressure.
• Identify how specific facial features, such as eyebrows and mouth shape, contribute to expressing emotions in a portrait.
• Analyze the effect of different mark-making techniques, like jagged or smooth lines, on the overall mood of a self-portrait.
• Compare their own self-portrait's emotional expression with a partner's, articulating similarities and differences in technique.

Before You Start

Basic Drawing Skills: Lines and Shapes

Why: Students need to be familiar with making different types of lines and basic shapes before they can manipulate them to create expressions.

Observational Drawing: My Face

Why: Prior experience looking at and drawing their own faces is helpful for understanding how features are arranged.

Key Vocabulary

line weight	How thick or thin a line is. Thicker lines can make features look bolder, while thinner lines can create delicate details.
pressure	How hard you press your drawing tool onto the paper. More pressure makes darker, thicker marks, while less pressure makes lighter marks.
facial features	The parts of the face that show emotion, such as the eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth.
expression	How a face shows feelings through the shape and position of its features.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Emotions show only in the mouth shape.

What to Teach Instead

Full facial features like eyes and eyebrows contribute to expressions. Partner guessing activities prompt students to scan whole faces and adjust lines, building comprehensive observation skills.

Common Misconception

Thick lines always mean an angry face.

What to Teach Instead

Line thickness conveys varied emotions based on direction and context, such as excitement or sadness. Station rotations let students test lines freely and discover nuances through trial and peer input.

Common Misconception

Portraits must look exactly like photos to be right.

What to Teach Instead

Expressive portraits prioritise feeling over realism. Sharing circles help students value emotional impact, gaining confidence through positive peer responses to their unique styles.

Active Learning Ideas

Pairs: Mirror Emotion Draw

Students work in pairs with hand mirrors. One pulls a feeling card, makes the face, and the partner draws it using line variations. They switch, guess the emotion, and discuss line choices that worked best.

30 min·Pairs

Small Groups: Emotion Line Stations

Set up stations for happy, worried, and excited faces. Groups rotate, practicing thick/thin lines and marks on large paper. At each station, they label techniques and note changes in expression.

45 min·Small Groups

Whole Class: Portrait Share Circle

Students display portraits around the room. Class walks the gallery, guesses emotions, and gives one specific line feedback per portrait. Teacher charts common techniques on the board.

25 min·Whole Class

Individual: Emotion Sequence

Each student draws their face three times, changing one emotion per portrait. They add notes on lines used and self-assess which shows the feeling best.

35 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Animators use line weight and pressure to give characters distinct personalities and emotions in films like 'Wallace & Gromit'. They carefully draw each frame to ensure the character's feelings are clear to the audience.
• Portrait artists, such as Lucian Freud, often use varied line work and shading to capture the sitter's mood and character. They observe subtle changes in expression to make their portraits feel alive.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Observe students as they draw. Ask: 'Show me how you are making your eyebrows look worried.' or 'What kind of line are you using for a happy mouth?' Note which students are experimenting with different marks.

Peer Assessment

Students hold up their portraits. Ask pairs to discuss: 'What emotion does your partner's portrait show?' and 'What specific lines or marks helped you guess the emotion?' Encourage them to use vocabulary like 'thick lines' or 'curved mouth'.

Exit Ticket

Give students a slip of paper. Ask them to draw one facial feature (e.g., eyebrows) that shows 'surprise' and one that shows 'sadness', using only lines. They should label each feature with the emotion.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I teach line techniques for emotional self-portraits in Year 2?

Start with demonstrations of thick/thin lines on the board, modelling happy versus worried faces. Provide varied pencils and mirrors for practice. Use emotion cards to focus efforts, then pair share for immediate feedback on technique impact. This scaffolds control while keeping sessions lively and relevant to standards.

What materials work best for Year 2 emotion portraits?

Use HB and softer pencils for line variation, large sketch paper for big marks, and hand mirrors for self-observation. Add coloured pencils sparingly after black line work to emphasise marks over colour. These choices support KS1 drawing progression without overwhelming young artists.

How can active learning help with self-portraits expressing emotions?

Active methods like mirror pairs and gallery walks make abstract feelings concrete through doing and discussing. Students iterate drawings based on peer guesses, refining lines in real time. This builds emotional vocabulary, artistic confidence, and collaboration skills far beyond worksheets, aligning with pupil-led Art and Design expectations.

How to differentiate emotion self-portraits for all abilities?

Offer pre-drawn face templates for beginners to add lines, while advanced students draw from scratch. Provide emotion word banks and line example strips. During shares, pair stronger artists with others for peer support. Assessment focuses on effort in expression, not perfection, ensuring inclusive progress.