Celebrity Portraits

This project is amongst the favorites of my eighth graders, even those who don't think Pollock drip paintings are "cool."  I print a black and white photo of a celebrity (students choice) and the students transfer the line drawing onto canvas board by rubbing the back with a charcoal pencil.  Students use tints and shades of gray to match the value of the photo.  The objective of this project is not drawing a portrait, which every student learns to do in the seventh grade), but about mixing and blending values.  I display all the portraits in the cafeteria for the school to ogle. 

                                             (Be prepared for a lot of Justin Bieber paintings)