a great exercise, suggested in daniel pink’s book, a whole new mind, in his portfolio of suggestions to increase your aptitude in the area of “symphony” (being able to orchestrate divergent things into a cohesive whole):

for those of you with more curiosity than patience [when it comes to learning to draw], consider playing around with a five-line self-portrait — that is, drawing your self-portrait using only five lines. it’s a great big-picture exercise and plenty of fun.

there used to be a cool website (www.the5line.com) that walked you through the process and showed a bunch of examples; but it seems to have gone dormant.

i could see this being a fun exercise to use in youth ministry, to get kids thinking about themselves. it would be a good activity when talking about self-image, or identity, or other subjects.