On our last day of “Modern Masters” we painted our own version of Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa.  We first read “William and the Missing Masterpiece” by Helen Hancocks.  It is a funny mystery where the lead character, William, is an international investigator who is called in to solve the crime of the missing Mona Cheesa. : D  We also learned some very interesting facts about the real Mona Lisa.

We then talked about portraits, particularly portraits in 3/4 view, which is how most portraits are painted.  We then drew our Mona Lisa-like portraits using a light color of Prismacolor Nupastel.  This kept them drawing nice and large but allowed them to make mistakes.  Black oil pastel was used to darken the lines we wanted to keep.  We painted our masterpieces with tempera paint and added light shading with chalk pastels.

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to do this project with our younger students.  I had an easier project picked out, but my girls persuaded me to go ahead with the Mona Lisa project.  I am so glad I did!  Some of my favorite portraits are by the youngest students. : )  They have such personality!  Here are the artists at work.

Here are a few of the finished works.