Preparing for pencil work

Students are getting ready to do self portraits, and I want them to use only ebony pencils to shade in a range of values.  We went over some basic shading practices, and then I also gave practice using grids to draw.  In my experience, students either love them or they hate them.  Either way, it is great to help them to draw only what they see.  I made some "Warholed" grey scale pictures with grids for the students to draw and practice making values with only their pencils. Here are the celebs I used:

When we are done, I plan to take students photos so they can draw themselves.

Kaleidoscope

I think all art teachers have done some version of a mandala or kaleidoscopic image with their students.  After all, it is an awesome art activity to learn about radial balance!  So, students had to include their name and three things that they like in their design.  i wrote my last name in cursive, drew a thread with a needle, an orchid and a zebra longwing butterfly.  Here is my example design:

The students enjoyed this assignment, although the transfer process can be a little complex for some.  It is so cool how those things that are drawn make their own unplanned design elements when the mirror image is added.  In the future, I believe we will not use watercolor washes on it so they can be more vibrant.