The Portrait Party is featured this month in the April 2011 issue of SchoolArts Magazine!
If this is your first time visiting this site, I'm sad to say that it's not as happening as it used to be. The best online portrait parties can now be found at Julia Kay's Flickr page (for the general public) and at Art Ed 2.0 (for art teachers only). Of course, the very best portrait parties will happen at your school, in your living room, and wherever you have a chance to draw with a friend.
Kristine Johncox set up this portrait party bulletin board for her elementary students to share their portraits. She wanted to start an interactive display where kids could complete enjoy portrait parties with family, friends, or classmates either in or out of school.
way back when i started this blog, i invited everyone i knew to start a portrait party of their own. i'm happy to say that julia kay took it so far as to start her own online portrait party over on flickr. for those of you who miss the heyday of this blog (when i had more time to manage it), hop over to her party and see what she's up to. the artwork is gorgeous.
every time i complete one of these student portrait parties, a new wave of them crashes down like a tidal wave. drawing one student (always belatedly) reminds a dozen more that they want to trade portraits also. i'm not complaining! it's a fun problem to have. you'll have to believe me that the swaps here represent the tippity tippiest tip of the iceberg. at the end of the year, i'll post a photo of the whole kaboodle. so, you can see the sea of drawings through which i've been swimming.
here is a truly gorgeous swap between n.c. mallory (portrayed above) and marty harris (portrayed below).
Before I colored his portrait, my drawing partner in this portrait party asked if he could go over all my purple lines in black. "It's yours when I'm done with it," I answered, "But what have you got against purple?" Happily, he changed his mind when all the other colors came together.
"You made me look like a grown up."
"You made me look like a rubber action figure."
I'd buy that action figure by the way.
(Attention teachers: If you are interested in hosting a portrait party at your school, check out the Portrait Party 2.0 that we started on Art Ed 2.0. There are lesson guides, student examples, and lots of other teachers excited to collaborate with you.)
