My 6-year-old decided that he wanted to paint a life-size picture of himself. He also wanted to paint a life-size picture of his brother.

To help him to accomplish this, we took two large pieces of paper from our paper roll, one sized for him and one sized for his brother. I then had him lay down and I traced all around his body, starting with his head and working my way down to his feet. I didn’t think we’d have much luck getting his little brother to lie still for outlining; but after seeing his big brother do it; my toddler was eager for his chance and actually held quite still.

After tracing around both boys, my 6-year-old took both papers downstairs, took out his water colors, and set to work painting both himself and his brother.

So many things can be learned through painting a self portrait. First, there’s the question of the art form itself: Do I want to be realistic? Abstract? How do I want to paint?

Painting yourself promotes self reflection: What do I look like? What do I want to present about myself? A self portrait is not only a visual representation of oneself, it can also tell something of a person’s essence. And what it reveals may not be explicit: it may be implied through color or expression or a pose.

When painting a self portrait, we can paint our own reality. Where, when, and how do we want to be? All of these things must be considered, consciously or subconsciously, before we start to paint.

My 6-year-old painted the above [partially complete] picture of himself. Obviously, (I’m not at all biased here; ha!) he’s a colorful character, full of light and love.

I think we’ll do this every year around his birthday. It’ll be fun to see how his self projection changes throughout the years.