Visual & Performing Arts · 1st Grade · The Artist's Eye: Line, Shape, and Color · Weeks 1-9

Self-Portraits: Expressing Identity

Students will create self-portraits using various art materials, focusing on capturing their unique features and expressions.

• Common Core State Standards
• NCAS: Creating VA.Cr1.2.1
• NCAS: Connecting VA.Cn11.1.1

About This Topic

Self-portraiture is one of the most culturally rich and personally meaningful topics in early art education. In first grade, making a self-portrait is an act of close observation and self-expression simultaneously. Students practice looking carefully at their own faces, identifying the placement of eyes, nose, and mouth, while also making choices about how to represent their own identity and personality. This connects NCAS standards VA.Cr1.2.1 and VA.Cn11.1.1 and supports the identity development emphasis in US K-12 social-emotional learning frameworks.

The genre of self-portraiture spans centuries and cultures, from Frida Kahlo's iconic works to Kehinde Wiley's contemporary portraits, giving students exposure to a wide range of approaches and inviting them to consider what choices they make about representing themselves.

Active learning is especially powerful here because the subject is the student. Discussing how different artists make choices, then applying those same questions to one's own portrait, makes artistic decision-making feel personal and purposeful rather than merely technical.

Key Questions

1. Analyze how different artists portray themselves in self-portraits.
2. Design a self-portrait that communicates a specific emotion or personality trait.
3. Justify the artistic choices made to represent one's own identity in a portrait.

Learning Objectives

• Identify key facial features and their placement in a self-portrait.
• Compare and contrast the artistic choices made by two different artists in their self-portraits.
• Design a self-portrait that communicates a chosen emotion or personality trait using specific colors and line types.
• Justify the selection of materials and techniques used to represent personal identity in their self-portrait.

Before You Start

Basic Drawing Skills: Line and Shape

Why: Students need to be able to control a drawing tool to make lines and shapes before they can represent facial features.

Introduction to Color Mixing

Why: Understanding how to mix basic colors is helpful for creating a wider range of skin tones and expressive colors.

Key Vocabulary

Self-Portrait	A portrait an artist creates of themselves. It is a way to show how you see yourself.
Facial Features	The distinct parts of a face, such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hair.
Expression	The way your face looks to show feelings, like happy, sad, or surprised.
Line	A mark made on a surface, like a straight line or a curvy line. Lines can show shape and feeling.
Color	The property of light that creates the different shades we see, like red, blue, or yellow. Colors can show emotions.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Self-portraits must look exactly like a photograph of the artist.

What to Teach Instead

Photographic realism is one approach to portraiture, but expressionistic, symbolic, and stylized self-portraits are equally valid and are often more revealing. Frida Kahlo's faces were not photorealistic, but they communicated identity and feeling with extraordinary power. Showing students a range of self-portrait styles removes the anxiety of not being able to 'draw faces right.'

Common Misconception

A self-portrait only includes the face.

What to Teach Instead

Artists regularly include hands, full figures, environments, and symbolic objects in self-portraits. Kehinde Wiley's portraits include elaborate floral backgrounds; Van Gogh's show clothing and brush strokes as much as facial features. Expanding students' sense of what a self-portrait can include opens up expressive possibilities.

Common Misconception

You need special skill to draw a face, so self-portraits are only for older students.

What to Teach Instead

First graders can create meaningful self-portraits with foundational scaffolding: learning to look at facial proportions and use a mirror. The value of the activity is not technical accuracy but intentional self-representation. Even a stylized portrait that includes a student's favorite color, sport, or family member is rich with artistic and identity content.

Active Learning Ideas

Observation Station: Mirror Drawing

Place small mirrors at each station. Students practice sketching what they see in sections: first just eyes, then nose placement, then mouth. After three small practice sketches, they combine observations into a full face drawing. Partners give one specific observation about what looks realistic in each other's portraits.

35 min·Individual

Gallery Walk: How Artists Show Identity

Post six diverse self-portrait reproductions, including works by Frida Kahlo, Kehinde Wiley, and Faith Ringgold. Students tour the gallery with a simple observation card: What does this artist show about themselves? What artistic choices tell you something about who they are? Partners compare observations.

25 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Design Your Portrait

Before students start their final self-portrait, ask: what do you want viewers to know about you? What colors, objects, or settings would you include? Students discuss with a partner, then sketch a quick plan including at least one element that communicates something specific about their identity.

20 min·Pairs

Studio Project: Self-Portrait with Identity Elements

Students create a full self-portrait using their preferred media (crayon, watercolor, collage) and include at least one background element, object, or color choice that says something specific about who they are. After completing, they write or dictate one sentence about the choice they made.

50 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Photographers take self-portraits, often called selfies, to share their image and mood with friends or on social media. They choose angles and filters to express themselves.
• Actors study their own faces and expressions to prepare for roles. They practice making different faces to show characters' feelings, which helps them connect with an audience.
• Illustrators create portraits for books and advertisements. They decide how to draw characters, including their expressions and unique features, to tell a story or sell a product.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Give students a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw one facial feature and write one word describing the emotion it shows. Collect these to check understanding of expression.

Discussion Prompt

Show students two different self-portraits. Ask: 'What do you notice about how these artists drew themselves? How are they different? How are they the same?' Guide them to discuss artistic choices.

Quick Check

As students work on their self-portraits, circulate and ask: 'Tell me about the colors you are using. Why did you choose those colors?' Listen for connections between color choice and intended expression.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you teach self-portraits to first graders?

Use mirrors and break the face into stages. Start with just the eyes, asking students to notice placement and shape, then add the nose and mouth. For the full portrait, remind students to place eyes in the middle of the face, not the top, which is the most common proportion mistake. Praise intentional choices over technical accuracy.

What artists are good examples for first grade self-portrait lessons?

Frida Kahlo is always effective for her bold colors and symbolic objects. Faith Ringgold's story quilts and painted narratives are accessible and show a strong personal voice. Kehinde Wiley is excellent for showing students that self-portraiture can be elaborate and celebratory. Using diverse artists also ensures all students see themselves in the genre.

Why are self-portraits important in early art education?

Self-portraiture combines observational drawing with identity exploration, two goals that reinforce each other. Students who practice close observation to draw their own faces are building the foundational looking skills used across all representational art. At the same time, making choices about how to represent themselves is an early exercise in artistic voice and self-awareness.

How does active learning support self-portrait work in 1st grade art class?

Mirror observation stations, gallery walks through artist self-portraits, and partner planning discussions all activate engagement before a student puts pencil to paper. When students articulate what they want to communicate before making, they approach the portrait as a design problem. This intentionality produces more expressive work than purely technical instruction does.