Vincent van Gogh…First Self-Portrait

Since I have been hired to teach art classes at Sign and Doodle this summer I have been doing research and trying to come up with lesson plans. One of the classes I will be teaching is Intro to Art for 6 to 8 year olds. I will be introducing them to famous artists. I knew one artist was going to be Vincent van Gogh.

I just happened to stumble upon Small Potatoes blog post on Vincent Van Gogh tonight as I was browsing Pinterest. I loved the idea of doing a self portrait in a mirror. Virginia is starting to branch out with her art and enjoys painting rainbows. But she hadn't tried self portrait. So I didn't know how this was going to go.

You should have seen her face when I told her she could paint on the bathroom mirror and sit on the sink. I think I won mother of the year award right then and there in her eyes. I laid out some washable paint and brushes and a cup of water. I told her she was going to paint a self portrait. This scared her at first but then I broke it down for her and told her to start with her hair and then do a circle for her face. Once she got started she was fine and did the rest with not to much worries. My daughter is a perfectionist and sometimes when things are not perfect she flips out. 

Once she was done painting I pressed a piece of paper onto the mirror and rubbed. She didn't like the way it turned out but there was enough of an outline where we took the paper to the living room and she was able to paint over the outline and make it the way she wanted. Maybe next time I won't rub so much.  And the best part is it cleans right off the mirror with a little window cleaner. 

Overall it was a success and I think I may put it down as a project for my Intro to Art class.