Black Glue Portraits

These black glue portraits were done by 4th graders.  We did very simple self portrait drawings.  This is actually hard for some of the kids.  They really want to add in lots of details, so getting them to hold back was a challenge.  The details are discouraged for this particular project because of the thickness of the black glue lines, too many details and the glue puddles.  On the color portion the students were encouraged to use bold colors, even on the skin and hair, but not required.  Day one, everyone drew their portraits. Day 2, we finished any drawing that was left and started outlining with the black glue.  On day 3, kids are at various stages, so this is the tricky part.  If kids start off the class period with the black glue, which only takes 15-20 minutes at most, then they have half a class left and are unable to continue because the glue is wet.  So, I go ahead and start everyone with the painting.  If some of the students only have a small amount of black glue left to finish up with, I let them do this at about the last 15 minutes of art.  One important thing to note is that if the black glue is done first, the students need to be careful about painting on top of the black glue lines.  If the glue lines gets too wet, they start to bleed into the color and then the colors get muddy.