| 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
- Discuss/brainstorm and list everything
the students 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?
- If the students were going to paint
a portrait, what subject would they most likely choose ?Why?
- Tell students 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 (live link)
National Portrait
Gallery - Washington (live link) |
