Digital Portraits

We are still on winter break here in South Carolina and it has given me time to scroll Twitter more than I do during a normal work week.

I have found quite a few ideas I really liked but this digital portrait one is my favorite (at least for right now 😉).

It came from a post that mentioned a Virtual Paint Party. Intrigued, I read through the comments and helpfully someone posted a link to the recorded "party". I normally scroll Twitter in bed so I spent an hour watching the entire video (much to my husbands annoyance 🤣).

The instructor Emma Cottier, a middle school teacher in Canada, was the guest presenter and did an outstanding job of walking through the steps of creating portraits using Google Drawings. There were so many excellent tips. My favorites were changing the color of the neck to provide contrast, using the Zoom feature liberally, and continually moving the originating photo to the front as you work in sections. She also showed student work and gave examples of how to use it across the curriculum.

I gave it a try. I figure if sixth and seventh graders could do it so could I! I am not not unhappy with the finished result. I see a lot I could fix but decided it was good enough. In the video she states she lets students choose either a picture of themselves or a celebrity/someone they admire...which is a good idea. I remember being VERY self conscience as a middle school student and if I hated looking at myself in a mirror imagine spending a great deal of time zooming in and out of your photo...even as an adult I was getting self conscience of my teeth, nose and, chubby chin as I tried to outline them).

I shared this idea in our district EdTech Facebook group thinking it would make a great integrated technology project for an art teacher or for a computer lab or graphic design teacher. I am hoping someone takes the idea and runs with it.

If you give it a try I would love to see what you create. Please comment below or tag me on Twitter @atechcoachlife.

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