Self-Portrait, Inspired by Tim Burton

I really enjoy creating projects inspired by other artists, particularly those whose style is nothing like my own. It's fascinating to see that, no matter how much I try to stay true to the artist's aesthetic, my own style is evident. That's definitely the case with today's self-portrait, which is inspired by Tim Burton. This is a great project to do with kids any time of the year, but it's especially fun during the Nightmare Before Christmas season. Affiliate links below. 

Self-Portrait, Inspired by Tim Burton

Materials: 

• toned drawing paper or cardstock
• pencil
• black Flair pen
• white colored pencil

Steps: 

Start by deciding if you will be drawing just yourself or if others (like a pet) will be with you. Lightly sketch an oval head for each character on the toned paper. Add very large circles in the middle of the oval for eyes. Then fill in the rest of the features. The mouth, nose, and human ears should be undersized. The bunny ears should be large. Draw the rest of the torso for each character. It should be very skinny - much skinnier than I made mine! 

When you are happy with your pencil lines, trace them with the Flair pen. Add hair. Then fill in the details: pupils in the centers of the eyes, short lines for eyelashes, small eyebrows, and bunny whiskers. 

Color in the eyes and the bunny's tummy with the white colored pencil. You may need to redraw the pupils after coloring. 

Use the pencil to add shading: around the outside of the eyes, on the side of the nose, along the insides of the face, under the chin, on the shoulders, under the arms, and in the bunny's ears. Add depth to the hair by filling it in with more pencil lines and shading. 

I stopped here, but feel free to add gothic-style clothing, a whimsical border, or an interesting background. You could also make a cool paper frame. Let your creativity go wild!

Construction Paper Watermelon Self-Portrait

Watermelon self-portraits are a fairly common project in elementary school. In this version, first graders used crayons and paint to create their portraits. Here, second and third graders used a black marker and paint, with a focus on layering. These first graders used watercolor crayons and glued their completed work to a tablecloth background. They're all adorable.

We used to have a construction paper version of a watermelon self-portrait on Fun Family Crafts (I'm the Editor) that was fairly popular. Unfortunately, the teacher who submitted her project to FFC took down her blog, so we no longer have a linked tutorial. When that happens with a popular craft, I try to find another similar tutorial to replace it. If I can't, I either delete the craft entirely or add it to a list of projects for one of us to remake. In this case, I knew I could whip up my own construction paper self-portrait in no time. Well, sort of. Instead of doing a self-portrait, I actually styled it like a Peanuts character. Affiliate links below.

Construction Paper Watermelon Self-Portrait

Materials:

• assorted construction paper (for background, shirt, hair, and watermelon)
• multicultural construction paper (for skin)
• scissors
• glue
• black pen

Steps:

Make the watermelon by cutting a semicircle from dark pink or red construction paper, keeping one of the straight edges of the construction paper intact. Glue the semicircle top of a piece of white construction paper, with the straight edges lined up. Cut just outside of the edge of the red/pink semicircle. Glue this to a piece of green construction paper, again lining up the straight edge. Cut just outside the white semicircle. Cut out a 'bite mark' from the three layers, then use a black pen to draw seeds randomly on the watermelon. 

Select construction paper that matches your skin tone. Place your hand along one of the straight edges so that half of your palm and four fingers are on the construction paper. Trace, then repeat the same steps with the other hand. Cut out both hands and set them aside. From the remaining construction paper, cut out a semicircle for your face. Draw eyes and a nose. 

Choose construction paper that best matches your hair and cut it into the style you want. If you want, add hair accessories or head coverings. (I cut two black barrettes.)

Select a piece of construction paper for the background and a second color for the shirt. Round off the corners of the shirt to make your shoulders, then glue it to the bottom of the background paper. Position the face and hair, then glue them in place. 

Glue the watermelon in place, then add the hands. 

There are so many ways to personalize this project, which is what makes it such a great classroom activity. It's fun to see the variety across a group of kids. 

Edible Me-on-a-Stick

When I shared my elephant-on-a-stick idea, I mentioned that I had a few other ideas for crafts-on-a- stick. You probably assumed I was thinking of bunnies. That would be a good guess, but my next project was actually a self-portrait, an edible Me-on-a-Stick, if you will.

OK, so it doesn't actually look like me at all. The biggest problem is that the skin tone is totally off, which is really ironic considering the level of effort I put toward making the face accurately match my skin. I found a really handy Candy Melts Color Chart on Wilton's website, but nothing specifically about mixing Candy Melts to make skin colors. So I decided to make my own chart. I chose four colors (Bright White, Peanut Butter, Light Cocoa, and Dark Cocoa) and lined them up (from top to bottom in the photo). Then I melted equal parts of two adjacent colors and put a dollop at the intersection of the two colors I used. Finally, I mixed equal parts of three adjacent colors (for example, Bright White, Peanut Butter, and Light Cocoa) and put the resulting color in the far right column. 

I tested all the blended shades, plus Peanut Butter, on my hand. None was quite right, but obviously some were more wrong than others. 

I tried the closest shade on my inner wrist, based on the fact that someone told me years ago that's where you should test foundation colors. It's sort of close, right? 

Take another look at my finished Me-on-a-Stick before you answer that. 

So it turns out that when you add a little bit of melted candy to your wrist, it looks a lot lighter than when you have a thick layer that has solidified. I added a touch of white to the not-my-skin-tone and made myself a friend. She looks a bit more natural and a bit less like someone who has an unfortunate addiction to tanning. 

Here are the two side-by-side.

So even though the Me-on-a-Stick is not exactly a perfect replica, it's still a lot of fun. I think kids would get a kick out of making their own Me-on-a-Stick. There are so many possibilities of candies you can use for the facial features and the hair. 

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Me-on-a-Stick

Materials (affiliate links):

• Round pretzels
• Wilton Candy Melts wafers
• Waxed paper
• Wilton sprinkles
• Lollipop sticks

Steps:

Put a round pretzel down on a piece of waxed paper. Melt the appropriate color(s) of Candy Melt wafers to get the desired skin tone. Spoon the candy into the pretzel. Add sprinkles to make hair, eyes, nose, and a mouth. Let the candy harden completely. 

Peel the candy off the waxed paper and turn it upside down. Put a dollop of Candy Melts on the back and add the lollipop stick. Let it set completely. 

I learned a few things during the making of Me-on-a-Stick, besides the importance of choosing a lighter-than-you-think skin tone if you're trying to match your skin. First and foremost, I learned the Candy Melts do not set up on skin. I don't know why this surprised me, but I thought one flavor would set up on the back of my hand before I added the next one. Nope. They stayed runny. And speaking of runny, the Peanut Butter Candy Melts are runnier and melt faster than the others. Oh, and they're delicious. This was the first time I'd tried them. They're even more delicious when combined with chocolate and/or vanilla Candy Melts!