Plummeting with Perspective

The summer time is the perfect time for posting more projects from last year!  This time it's another Pinterest-inspired idea, (as most of "mine" seem to be!) so thank you, world, for making my job easier and helping inspire me when my blank lesson book feels like the world's largest and most unforgivable canvas.

I did this with the 6th graders right after doing a mini-unit on portraits, faces and expressions, although I'm sure you could vary the requirements and detail required for any age.  It's just plain fun!  For these "self portraits", I focused on perspective, (obviously,) line, (in the shoes, hands, hair, etc.,) expression, and composition, (I'm always reminding them to fill the WHOLE page!).  So here's my example of the finished product:

Which obviously I hung on the ceiling outside my classroom door along with a, "CAUTION, FALLING SKYDIVERS!"  sign on the wall.

Step 1: 

Have a friend trace your feet... shoes ON!

...and your hands... in "falling" position.

Step 2:

Flip that shoe over and copy the design onto your paper.  We made a lot of jokes about how stinky this workday was.  I really thought they would complain a lot about how intricate all of their shoe bottoms were, but they surprisingly loved this part and ended up quite proud!  Out of my 55 students who did this project, only 1 ended up giving up and making a bunch of squiggles.

Step 3:

We talked about perspective earlier in the year, and I had them apply this to their bodies.  It helped to have them start at their feet/hands and work towards the middle instead of the other way around.  (Many students found this part the most challenging and, as you can see in the example below, ended up forgetting to reduce the size of their arms close to their bodies.  Something to mention next year I guess!) 

Step 4:

I put up some suggested expressions for students to consider as their "Falling face" and reminded them that it should be a portrait of themselves.  Some students used mirrors to make expressions and compare them with some on the board, and many mix & matched parts of faces on the board to create their own.  No smiley-faces allowed!

Step 5: Add other details, (clothing, lines in palms, etc,) outline hands/feet/body/head (not shoe designs,) in black marker, (this helped make them POP!), choose a background to be falling from, (required a lot of reminding that they were falling forward, so the background would not have a horizon line with trees, etc.) and last but not least, color in!

Here are a few student-generated examples.  I would have loved to hang these from the ceiling but I was running short on time so they ended up on the wall instead.  Still a hit for passersby!