Self Portrait with Monkey Inspired by Frida Kahlo by 1st Grade

These self portraits were created by one of my first grade classes. They are doing an expo project on monkeys, so I assigned them a "monkey buddy" (a color printout of a species of monkey) to draw in their self portrait, hugging them in the way Frida Kahlo's pet monkey appears to do in this painting:

The students drew the composition with permanent marker, painted with tempera cakes, and then made the color richer with a layer of oil pastels.The students absolutely loved this lesson and I enjoyed extending our self portrait theme to relate to their expo projects!