Travis is learning to depict objects in his drawings as they are; by this I certainly don’t mean exact replicas, but rather, he’s paying attention to shapes, sizes, and other elements that make up an animal or person instead of just scribbling. I love seeing the little bubble people he sends home from school with stick arms and legs, reminiscent of my own kindergarten drawings!

So today, we decided to make a deliberate self-portrait.

To make this exciting and new, I produced a handheld mirror, and asked him to really think about each thing we added to the picture before penciling it in. What shape was his face, I asked. A circle! So we started with a big one.

We went feature by feature, and soon had circles for eyes, a triangle for his nose, and a U-shaped mouth.

Once he had finished his pencil drawing, I outlined it in black sharpie to make each feature clearer. He loved seeing the picture take shape like this!

To color it in, we had another novelty: watercolor paintbrushes that he loved. Simply dip the tip in water, and the color comes out of the brush. You could also use watercolor crayons or pastels, for this project.

Travis very proudly added brown hair and brown eyes. He noticed in the mirror that his nose was beige, but decided yellow was the closest color in our pack.

And a big red smile of course!

I was so proud watching the care that he put into this project. And the watercolor paintbrushes were such a hit that he spent nearly an hour after making painting after painting, and hung them on our wall as an art gallery.

In other words, this project was a huge success.