Are portraits drawn from the imagination, real life, or both?
As a pre-assessment task, students create their own self-portrait from observation in pencil (1 hour). Works are then discussed highlighting struggles, successes and strategies. Students answer the question, "What makes a good portrait?"
Lesson 2:
Why do artists do portraits and why do consumers want them?
What are the correct proportions to create true to life portraits?
View a video tutorial on drawing the head in proportion (Go to the Proportions tab on the site).
Are portraits influenced by personal, social or cultural perspectives? How? Are they different around the world? What techniques are employed for portrait art?
Students explore drawing human features. They examine their face in a mirror and answer "How does the expression around your eyes change when you frown? When you are surprised, etc.?"
"How do your eyes, nose and mouth change with each expression? How are face shapes different? Eyes, skin tone, etc.?"
Warm-up:Do a Blind Contour Drawings of their neighbour (Q. Why would someone want to draw something without looking at the drawing? A. To focus on observing the object, rather than the drawing.)
Students attempt a shading activity using 2B, 4B and 6B pencils (B pencils = soft, H = hard).
Students will also be given a photo of themselves. A simple cross hair grid is drawn over it where they examine their own proportions. Students will use this to begin drawing their own portrait. (More info to come in class)
Week 4
Students continue drawing their self portrait. (More info to come in class)
You will need to include an artist statement/self reflection with your piece.
In paragraph form, please include the following information as well as key vocabulary used in class.
Describe the basic composition of your portrait.
Describe how you used different tones, effects, techniques and why.
Describe the difficulties you had in this drawing.
What do you think you have learned, or improved on in this project?
If you had to repeat this project, what would you improve on or do differently and why?
To achieve a 7/8 on the rubric, it states:
The student reflects critically and in-depth on his or her artistic development and processes at different stages of their work and carries out an excellent evaluation.
This shows a considered appraisal of quality of work and improvements that could be made.
The student intentionally uses feedback in their development and processes, with appropriate consideration of his or her artistic processes.
Example of a written self-reflection:
I completed an A3 sized frontal self-portrait in pencil of my face. I primarily used an HB pencil for creating my outlines and measurements and then used 2B-6B pencils for shading. I used a reference photo with cross-hairs to assist me with my measurements.
First I outlined the measurements of my head on my paper and folded my reference photo to assist me several times. Then I focused on my eyes, nose and mouth paying particular attention to the darkest shadows and highlights. After I had the darkest shadows marked, I then softened the surrounding areas to blend it more realistically. Occassionally I used a blending stump (tortillon) to highlight the different values and tones. I found starting with the darkest shadows easiest. I noticed that the areas near the corners of the eyes, nostrils and areas of the mouth, had very dark areas. I tried to have at least 4 tones in my drawing and found myself going back and forth smoothing out areas and redarkening my shadows.
I had a few difficulties with this project. The eyes were the greatest struggle for me. I found it hard to get the shape correct. Creating the shadows were also very difficult at first. I kept darkening too much resulting in my work becoming flat. This means my work did not look realistic. When this happened, I had to use the eraser to show the highlights and had to again find the darkest area to shade. Sometimes a simple dark black line with the 6B pencil created a huge improvement. The hair was also extremely difficult to make look realistic. To tackle this problem, I created a middle tone and then created the dark shadows with line and used the eraser to show the highlights.
I believe I learned a lot in this project. I have learnt the correct proportions of a head and have discovered that it is quite mathematical. To be honest, I could have used the website resources more at home. My shading really improved too. Previously, I would have probably only had two tones, but now I know to have at least four.
If I had to repeat this project, I would spend more time trying to improve the hair. I would trust my measurements more as I realised to make your work look realistic, you need to focus on shading. The nose is an example for this. Very few lines are needed to draw the nose. How you show the highlights and shadows are crucial in drawing a nose.
Overall, I feel I have improved a lot during this unit. Not only have my skills and techniques improved, but also my confidence.
You may also simply go here to view the thumbnails faster or if you wish to save a photo.
View some different portraits online here. NOTE: this will be used more during semester 2
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