Year 1 Art – Collage self-portraits

Year 1 have been learning about collage through the work of artist Brianna McCarthy. They looked at examples of collage and realised that lots of different materials can be used to make an interesting composition. They learnt that there are lots of artists reusing and recycling materials to make collage. The children practised how to tear, place and arrange their pieces of paper in a pleasing composition. The work of Brianna McCarthy is very colourful and she uses drawing and painting in her collage portraits. Year 1 looked carefully at their faces using a mirror and used lots of different types of papers to create a self-portrait using collage. They had to consider where to place the features of their face and which papers to choose. They used pen and paint to add other details. Here are some of the final self-portraits.

What The Student Says

"I love my self-portrait. I think it is colourful and I did a good job!" - child in 1RS.
"I like how my hair turned out. I think I look funny. It was nice to be able to tear and cut the papers." - child in 1LK.
"I really like to collage. Anyone can do it." - child in 1LK.

What knowledge and skills have been developed?

Art skills:
Tearing
Placing
Cutting
Selecting
Arranging
Gluing

Knowledge:
To know what collage is and understand that a variety of materials can be used to create collage. To know that Brianna McCarthy is a female, living and successful artist from Trinidad and Tobago who uses collage to create portraits using torn papers, drawing, paint, pattern and colour. To know that collage is a creative process and materials can be placed in different places before deciding where to glue the papers.

What the Teacher says

The children worked very hard to create their self-portraits in the style of artist Brianna McCarthy. They learnt lots of skills including, tearing, placing, arranging, cutting and selecting the right materials for their final piece of work. They used their sketchbooks to try out ideas first and this enabled them to be confident in their choices. The mirrors helped the children to be accurate in placing the features of their face onto their self-portrait. Year 1 really enjoyed looking at their faces and being creative!

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