Graphics from Scratch

This was a very interesting and fun assignment. I am by no means a great artist, but how can you be only using five lines? It will be very interesting to see how everyone else's in the class turns out too. To create my five line self portrait, I went into Microsoft Paint. I started to make a face out of an oval, but I soon realized I could only use five lines; and if I created a face, I would have to choose between no nose or no mouth. So instead I created the shape of my face by creating my hair. I used the spraypaint option and picked the color yellow to represent my blonde hair. Second, I created my two eyes. I used the oval option to create the shape of both eyes, and then I filled them in blue. Now I have used three lines. Fourth, I used the pencil option to make my nose. Lastly, I used the paint brush to make my mouth. I was very suprised I could do it in five lines. After I completed it, I saved it as a 24-bit bitmap (or .bmp). I uploaded it to Google Docs and created a link here: 5 Line Self Portrait

This would be a fun and interactive tool to use in the classroom. One way I thought of doing this is by incoporating it with PowerPoint. I would put the students into groups and have them write their own story/book. Then, they could illustrate pictures for their stories in Microsoft Paint; and each illustration for each page would have a criteria (i.e. it can only be done in 5 or 10 lines). Then, they could import their illustrations into Power Point... with each illustration having its own slide. Then, they could write a story on the Power Point slides to go with each illustration. After that, they could present their stories/books to the rest of the class using a Power Point presentation. Depending on the grade level, they could even narrate it in Microsoft Photo Story. I think students would have a lot of fun with this activity!