Honesty: One Square at a Time...

As you all know, I am a guest writer for Core Essentials. They sent me a few words based on Character Education and wanted me to utilize them in my classroom throughout my lessons and post the results on my blog.
One of the words was Honesty. After talking with my 4th grade students, we decided that a self-portrait is one of the most honest things that can be created in Art. When creating a self-portrait, you really have to be honest with yourself because there is no changing what you look like.
And, as it turns out, it just so happens that my librarian has a really great book on Chuck Close (for those of you who may not know, he is known for doing portraits and self-portraits).  The book is titled Chuck Close: Face Book.  My students and I looked at his book for our inspiration.
We started our project using a grid system. They used 9"x12" white paper and a ruler and made a 1-inch grid and outlined it with a Sharpie. Then they started to draw their self-portraits. I had them create a line drawing of their face.  Then, I asked the students to be honest with themselves and think about the things that are important to them in their daily lives. I asked them to turn each grid square into a letter that would make up a word (I asked that the examples they used not be materialistic items).
Unfortunately, this project has taken a little longer then I thought, so I am posting a couple of the best examples so far, and when the portraits are finished, I will post them again.