A portrait-making workshop with children at a promary school for children who need special attention, for Keti Koti Junior. Together with Noémi Beyer, commissioned by De Rode Loper op School, Ninsee and Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. Noémi Beyer and I had already tried a few things for this lesson at the school where she works: Oscar Carré School.

This time we had made it just a little easier. It had to be a successful experience for the children. That’s why we used carbon paper for this lesson. Some people may remember it from the era before the copier. You could put it behind your paper that you were going to type eon with your typewriter, with another paper behind it, and when you started typing the carbon paper pressed through on that back paper. There is a thin layer on the back of carbon paper that gives off black, that’s how.

To practice, we printed photos of children from the book ALA SMA TORI – Keti Koti Verbeeld in a small format and glued them to drawing paper with a cut-out piece of carbon paper behind it, so that it wouldn’t shift.

We showed the children that, when you look at a face, you can see lines. We checked whether the children understood that. Then each child was given a small photo with carbon paper underneath and drawing paper underneath. Look where you can see lines and draw over them with a pencil. As you can see below, that went very well!

Each child then received a photo of themselves (the school had taken and printed the photos), in A4 format, again with carbon paper and drawing paper underneath (I had prepared that before, just like the small photos wiith carbon paper etcetera)). The assignment was the same: look carefully where you see lines in your photo and draw over them with a pencil.

FInally, all children were allowed to paint their photo with a brush and watercolor from a box with dry pans (see photo below left). Of course, we first explained how to work with such paint.

Noémi and I thought the portraits turned out beautiful! I made a poster of all the portraits (just like the front cover of the book ALA SMA TORI – Keti Koti Verbeeld): ala den pikin, all the children of the school!