Understanding and Knowing About Portraits Curriculum Areas: Understanding the Visual Arts in Context: Links to: Language. Technology Levels: 2+ Modigliani - Portrait of a Young Man Teacher Notes One of the most challenging areas of the art syllabus and most difficult for teachers to find good resource material for is the 'Understanding the Visual Arts in Context' strand. The American art materials firm- Sanford have excellent Online materials that help overcome this problem. This Online project for students … - introduces students to the art genre of portraits - compares them with other art forms - deals with topics that are suitable for portraits - looks at the advantages that painting portraits can have over the camera Pupils can then 'create' their own online portrait in a fun and interesting way using pre-drawn shapes. This is a lot of fun and provides excellent motivation for portrait drawing/painting of their own Lesson Sequence for Pupils Getting Started 1. Discuss/brainstorm and list everything the pupils know about portraits, eg What is a portrait? what makes it different from other pictures and art forms?How is it different from a landscape? 2. If the pupils were going to paint a portrait, what subject would they most likely choose ?Why? 3. Tell pupils that they are going to go Online to take a 'fun lesson' that will tell them all about portraits - and even let them create their own. Before Going OnLine 1.Divide class up in to small groups for the Online project. 2. Each group is required to answer these simple questions and share their answers with the class when all groups have had a chance to complete the Online project. - what makes a portrait different from other pictures? - why do artists paint portraits? - what is the normal way that we now use to remember people by? - what advantages over a photograph has a painted portrait? - list at least three different types of portraits Going OnLine Click here for the Portrait Lesson Live Link Teacher Follow Up Lesson … 2-3 art sessions Objectives: to identify a variety of portrait examples find and discuss the visual information contained in portraits understand that artists communicate ideas and emotions visually take part in the artistic process of portraiture - Before starting the lessons, download the full lesson plan using the live link below and become familiar with the objectives and content of the lessons. - Have a class portrait display when completed and challenge other classes to 'guess the subject'. Go to Lesson Plan Now Great Sites for looking at portraits OnLine … Live links. Click on the name below. National Portrait Gallery - London National Portrait Gallery - Washington Do you have a lesson you would like to share with other teachers? Simply email us an attached Word, Works or PDF file and we will add it to our library. Don't forget to include your name and school so we can acknowledge your work. Click on the email icon below.