Lesson Overview: 

In this project, students will create a digital self-caricature by exaggerating and abstracting their facial features, body language, and personality traits. Through a blend of realism and creative distortion, students will learn to use humor, symbolism, and artistic stylization to reflect on their identity.

They will use digital tools such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to explore how caricatures differ from traditional portraiture and how exaggeration can reveal deeper aspects of personality. This project will focus on developing technical skills in digital illustration while encouraging self-expression and creativity.

Learning Objectives

• Students will explore the concept of caricature, focusing on how exaggeration can be used to communicate personality and identity.

• Students will learn how to use digital illustration tools (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator) to create a self-caricature that balances realism with playful abstraction.

• Students will practice using design elements such as line, shape, and proportion to create engaging and humorous compositions.

• Students will reflect on their own identity and artistic style through the process of creating a self-caricature.

• Students will critique their peers’ work, providing thoughtful feedback on the balance of exaggeration, style, and identity in their caricatures.

Big Ideas

• Exaggeration and abstraction can be effective artistic tools for communicating personality and identity.

• Self-caricatures offer an opportunity for self-reflection and creative expression.

• Caricatures balance realism and distortion, encouraging a playful and unique approach to portraiture.

• Digital tools allow for experimentation in style and technique, providing artists with new ways to manipulate and present their self-image.

Essential Questions

1. How can exaggeration and abstraction be used to highlight key elements of a person’s personality or appearance?

2. What elements of your physical appearance or personality can be emphasized in a self-caricature to create a humorous or insightful representation of yourself?

3. How can digital tools be used to create an engaging and visually interesting caricature?

4. In what ways do artists balance realistic portrayal and exaggerated features to capture the essence of an individual?

5. How can exploring caricature help develop a personal artistic style and voice?

Instructional Sequence

Day 1: Introduction to Caricature

• Hook: Show examples of famous caricatures (both digital and traditional), discussing how artists use exaggeration to communicate key aspects of the subject’s appearance and personality.

• Discussion: Introduce the essential questions, focusing on how artists balance realistic features with exaggerated traits. Discuss how students might approach creating a self-caricature.

• Activity: Students examine their own features in a mirror or photograph and begin brainstorming which elements they could exaggerate in a caricature (e.g., eyes, nose, smile, hairstyle).

Day 2-4: Concept Sketching & Exploration

• Demonstration: Teach the basics of caricature by showing how facial proportions and key features can be manipulated to create humorous, exaggerated versions of a person’s face. Introduce digital sketching techniques in Photoshop or Illustrator.

• Activity: Students begin sketching ideas for their self-caricature on paper or directly on digital platforms, focusing on which features to exaggerate and how they can express their personality.

• Reflection: Students write a brief statement describing which aspects of themselves they are focusing on and why they chose to exaggerate certain features.

Day 5-7: Digital Caricature Development

• Activity: Students move their sketches into digital software and begin refining their self-caricatures, using digital tools to enhance line work, add color, and manipulate features. Focus on balance between realistic and exaggerated elements.

• Individual Feedback: Provide one-on-one guidance to help students improve their technique and refine their caricature style. Encourage experimentation with color schemes, shapes, and stylized features.

• Group Critique: Midway through the project, conduct a peer review where students present their work-in-progress and receive feedback on how well their self-caricature communicates personality and identity.

Day 8-10: Refinement & Finalization

• Activity: Students focus on finalizing their caricatures, adding detail, polishing line work, and incorporating feedback from the group critique.

• Reflection: Update the concept statement to reflect changes made during the process and how the final caricature represents them.

• Demonstration: Show advanced techniques for shading, highlights, and adding textures that can bring the caricature to life.

Day 11-12: Presentation & Critique

• Presentation: Students present their final self-caricatures to the class, explaining how they chose to exaggerate features and what aspects of their personality they aimed to capture.

• Formal Critique: As a class, discuss how effectively each self-caricature balances exaggeration with realism and what the caricatures communicate about the students’ personalities.

Day 13: Reflection & Self-Assessment

• Reflection: Students write a final reflection on their experience with caricature, how they approached exaggerating their own features, and how this process helped them explore their identity and artistic style.

Georgia Department of Education Standards: Applied Design 1

VAADCR.1: Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VAADCR.2: Create artwork reflecting personal solutions to design problems using a variety of techniques, approaches, and tools.

VAADCR.3: Explore various media, techniques, and processes to develop aesthetic criteria.

VAADAR.1: Reflect on and discuss the visual aspects and purposes of artwork from various times and cultures.

VAADPR.1: Create works of art that demonstrate mastery of material, technique, and process.

VAADAR.2: Critique personal and others’ artworks through the application of art concepts.

Part 1 Reference image(s)

Bring in several current (taken for this project) images of yourself to use as reference

• • Submission Link

Part 2 Sketch

• • Sketch

    • Submission Link

Part 3 WIP

• • WIP

    • Submission Link

Part 4 Final

• • WIP

    • Submission Link