***UPDATE: 6/17/26—-I just added more of my 5th graders self-portraits below! I also recently added a “Summertime Art Lessons” page and “Winter Art Lessons” page under the main menu and I’ll be adding a dedicated “Fall Art Lessons” page soon as well!

This 3 day art lesson is inspired by the artist Cecilia Paredes. Besides my “Winter Northern Lights” and “1 Point Perspective Cityscapes”, this is definitely one of my top 3 favorite art lessons to teach 5th grade! I LOVE them so much and my students are really enjoying the process and are thrilled with their work as well!

I love his expression in the one above and it has a comic book illustration quality to it, doesn’t it?!

Step-by-step directions on how we made these and the learning goals are below these next self-portraits!

I just LOVE these SOoo much!

This lesson takes 3 (40 min.) art classes to finish— although some students finished up on day 2 

DAY 1

I showed students a few of my examples first and then introduced them to Cecilia Paredes’ artwork— Below are screenshots of my Google slides. 

Below are my teacher examples 

We reviewed what mixed media meant, then I explained that we’d be creating 2 abstract paintings using watercolors (and oil pastels if they wanted) for their background. They would later on choose only one of their paintings for their finished artwork.  I then demonstrated a variety of ways they could paint. On their (2) 9×12” 80# white papers they could do any of the following: 

• Paint random lines, shapes and colors with watercolors 

• Splatter paint only 

• Splatter paint and then scrape the paint while still wet 

• Draw with oil pastels first, then splatter paint on top and then scrape 

For scraping, I had kids use the side of a plastic texture rubbing plate. Students were given one sheet of 9×12” to start, and when the first sheet was complete, they put it in the drying rack and then got a 2nd sheet. I encouraged kids to experiment, and to explore 2 different methods to create their  background paintings. 

My students had so much fun and thought it was so cool when they saw their results from scraping their paintings! 

There was definitely some horsing around in art class that day! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist) 

While kids painted, I went around and took each students photo. Kids could pose any way that they wanted, but I shot from their chest up so it would be more close-up. 

Later on, I edited their color photos to black and white, and then printed them out on regular 8.5” x 11” copy/printer paper at home. Then I slid their pictures in a plastic sheet protector (see pic below). 

DAY 2 

On day 2, I brought in all their photos inside the sheet protectors and demonstrated under the document camera how to trace over all the contour lines using a black fine point sharpie. 

I showed them that if you make a mistake anywhere with sharpie on the plastic, how to erase their marks. This is such a cool trick too! All you have to do is draw with a dry erase marker right over the mistake and then use a q-tip (or tissue) to rub it off!! LOVE that hack! 

Once all the contour lines were traced with black sharpie on the plastic sheet protector, they took their photo out and flipped it over to the white side, and placed it back inside with the white side facing up. This allows you to see your lines clearly and see colors more accurately when coloring. 

Then students colored in their hair, eyes, lips, and clothing with colored sharpies. They could use any colors they wanted. The only parts they couldn’t color in was their skin. The dry erase marker trick works on the color sharpie as well btw. 

These are the sharpies I purchased off Amazon for this lesson. Nice bright, vibrant colors and was fairly cheap too! 

One thing I explained to students though was to be careful when coloring near the black sharpie lines. If you get colored sharpie right on top of the black contour lines, it dissolves them. So I just told them to be careful and to go right up to the black contour lines,  but try not to go over them. 

DAY 3 

Students finished coloring in their drawings and once complete, they tested out their plastic sheet drawing on top of both paintings. The cool thing about this project is you can flip the image over and try it out that way too! You can also turn the abstract painting upside down and see how the self-portrait looks as well! So many possibilities! That’s why I had them paint two paintings —not only to experiment more with painting techniques—but this way they had more than one option for their background.  

Once students positioned their self-portrait drawings the way they liked it on top of their selected painting, they paper clipped the painting and self-portrait together.  Then later on, I trimmed the edges of the plastic sheet with scissors (to remove the sealed edges and the 3 ring binder holes) and stapled the artwork together. 

Also—When kids finished, they could keep their 2nd painting and their black and white photo and some students created additional art using them. One student made a really sweet birthday card for her dad using the photo and painting! 

Learning Goals: 

Students can utilize the Elements of Art: Line, Shape, Color, Value and Texture to create their art and can define each element 

Students learn about Cecilia Paredes and can identify her artwork 

Students can define mixed media 

Students can define abstract art and create an abstract painting 

Students can demonstrate various watercolor painting techniques 

Students can define what contour lines are and can create the contour lines for their self-portrait 

If you didn’t already see, I recently created a “SELF-PORTRAIT” page listed under the main menu with a variety of self-portrait lessons for grades K-5 (and was updated on 5/31/26!)

I also added a NEW page “Every Art Lesson Since 2017” under my main menu the other day and actually edited it today (5/31/26) so that all these post links are in some kind of order! I put them all by grade level and one miscellaneous category. Now it’ll be easier for you to locate stuff I posted! YAY!

I also plan on adding “summer art lessons”, “fall art lessons” and “winter art lessons” pages soon too! 

And finally, I just added an “OP Art”resource sheet in my TpT store for my 5th grade OP Art drawing lesson. My TpT store is HERE!

Thanks so much for visiting my website today!