Symbolic Self-Portrait


​Students use animal character traits to create a self-portrait of themself as an animal. ​
  • Self-portrait to learn about students self-perception and identity
  • This lesson is suggested for the beginning of the year as a way to prepare for the other symbolic portrait project later in the year.​
  • Introduces symbolic thinking 
  • Uses a more structured artistic process than the later project.

Lesson Plan

This is the full lesson plan for the unit with connections to VAPA standards.

Animal symbolism slide show

Students connect animals to their character traits

Other Resource Links

Flowers page
​Symbolism Worksheet
Alphabet fonts
​Animal Symbolism
Animal images Packet

Project Evaluation

This is a checklist for pairs to complete

Videos

Here is a video about this project made for teachers by students.  The video was made using Adobe Spark.

Artist Statement

An example artist statement frame and example
More videos below
A guide to creating watercolor backgrounds with the "vignette" effect.
​Also available here (not on YouTube)
A guide to adding color with oil pastels to the transparency.
​​​Also available here (not on YouTube)
A guide to tracing the image onto transparency.
​​Also available here (not on YouTube)
Two ways to add text to your image
​​Also available here (not on YouTube)