Portray Yourself
Explore the relationship between subject, artist and audience through portraiture.
Investigate image, identity and representation by exploring significant portraits in the collection of one of Australia's most important art museums - the National Gallery of Victoria.
This resource includes creative extension activities that can be shared with parents to support home/school learning links. Click Here to download resources. Parents can also subscribe to ARTS:LIVE to access resources directly.
To share content with students or families use this link:
Teacher Pack
The Teacher Pack below contains all the lesson plans associated with this course as a single downloadable document.
All other activity sheets and course materials can be downloaded through the Lessons Tab.
This resource also includes creative extension activities that can be shared with parents to support home/school learning links. Click Here to download resources. Parents can also sign up to access ARTS:LIVE resources directly.
The Curriculum Alignment document below maps this course against the Australian Curriculum.
Driving inquiry
How do artists identify themselves and others through portraiture?
Maximising outcomes
When reflecting on artworks or exploring new creative topics, it may be useful to use the following teaching and learning strategies.
Visual analysis of artworks
Visual analysis is one of the key skills needed to engage in discussion about visual arts. To analyse a work of art visually is to break it down into the basic elements and principles of art.
Students will learn how to look at artworks and identify and describe the formal elements in order to recognise and understand the visual choices the artist made and why (in relation to the artwork's context). By learning to describe formally the artwork and what they see, students will be able to reflect on, wonder about and question the ideas and meanings within an artwork.
This technique also supports inquiry. Students (or teachers for that matter) do not necessarily need to know much about artists and artwork to be able to look at, describe and reflect on images - therefore making their own observations and developing their own meanings.
See, think, wonder
The "See, think, wonder" method encourages students to make careful observations and give thoughtful responses when exploring works of art.
What do you see? Encourage students to really look at the work. Allow time for students to explore and describe what they see, including naming the formal elements of art.
What do you think about that?
What do you wonder about?
Use one stem at a time (I see - I think - I wonder ?) and list responses on the board to make thinking visible. It's also a good idea to provide adequate time for students to think about the question before requesting answers.
(Look) Think, pair, share
The "(Look) Think, pair, share" method is a cooperative learning technique that encourages individual participation and is applicable across all year levels and class sizes. Students think through questions using three distinct steps. This method is particularly useful when doing visual analysis (looking at and responding to artworks) as the students' ideas become refined through the process.
Look refers toidentifying the formal elements and principles of art to support the following:
Think: students think independently about the question that has been posed, forming ideas of their own.
Pair: students discuss their thoughts in pairs. This step allows all students to articulate their ideas and to consider those of others.
Share: student pairs share their ideas with a larger group, such as the whole class. Students are often more comfortable presenting ideas to a group with the support of a partner. In addition, students' ideas have become more refined through this three-step process.
Tips
Artwork for students is about the process just as much as the finished product.
Time and perseverance are key to the development of techniques and processes.
Encourage everyone to "have a go", and focus on the positive aspects of their work.
Focus on problems solved, and what is similar and different, rather than value judgements such as right or wrong.
Aim for expression rather than perfection.
Empathy and understanding for others is aided by students stepping back and viewing their artwork alongside others?.
Portraiture offers the opportunity for deep self-reflection. When developing a collection of work, students not only represent their own physical characteristics but can also choose visual devices to represent aspects of their personality and identity.
Drawing: representations on a flat surface, usually made with pen, pencil, crayon, chalk or paint, with an emphasis on line.
Feelings: an emotional state or reaction.
Identity: a person's perception and expression of their individuality.
Portrait: an artwork (usually drawing, painting or sculpture) representing the likeness of a person.
Proportion: relative size of parts of a whole: eg proportions of the face - the nose is usually the same size as the ears.
Self-portrait: a representation of an artist that has been drawn, painted, photographed or sculpted by the person themselves.
Shade: the darker values of a colour to represent light and shadow.
Shape: an enclosed, two-dimensional space (eg a triangle). Shapes may have clear edges (eg squares, circles) or be organic with irregular edges (eg hearts, flowers).
Tone: the lightness or darkness of a colour.
This is a valuable and engaging resource for the Visual Arts curriculum for years 3 and 4. It has relevance to all four content descriptions for this year band, including those that refer to exploring artworks from different cultures and times and to identifying the purposes and meanings of artworks in order to compare them. The video and the Exploring faces activity are especially useful for these content descriptions and the Face Talk activity sheet is well suited to the years 3 and 4 age group.
The major thrust of the resource is for students to understand and use the conventions of portraiture to create artworks of themselves and a partner. This is highly relevant to the content descriptions about using materials, techniques and processes to explore visual conventions when making artworks and describing how they have used the conventions to represent their ideas.
Produced by The Song Room with Kelly Boucher
With support from the Macquarie Group Foundation
With special thanks to the National Gallery of Victoria, the Bundanon Trust and Ah Xian
Video created by X:MACHINE Productions
Additional talent in video: the staff and students of St Joseph's Primary School, Collingwood
References
National Gallery of Victoria collection
Ah Xian 2002, China China - Bust 71, porcelain, 35.5 x 32.6 x 23.6 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Amigoni, J c 1750-1752, portrait group: The Singer Farinelli and Friends, oil on canvas, 172.8 x 245.1 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1950.
Boyd, A 1969, Joseph Brown, oil on canvas, 76.7 x 64.2 cm, reproduced with the permission of Bundanon Trust, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004.
Lambert, George W 1906, Lotty and a Lady, oil on canvas, 102.8 x 127.7 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1910.
Modigliani, A 1916, Portrait of the Painter Manuel Humbert, oil on canvas, 100.2 x 65.5 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1948.
Picasso, P 1937, Weeping Woman, oil on canvas, 55.2 x 46.2 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Reynolds, J c 1763-1764, Miss Susannah Gale, oil on canvas, 210.0 x 118.8 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1934.
Rodin, A 1898; cast 1967, Balzac, National Gallery of Victoria sculpture garden.
Online
Beauchamp-Arnold, T 2009, A Garden Sculpture of a Sleeping Human Face - Provincetown, Massachusetts, photograph, Wikimedia commons, viewed 4 April 2014, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Face_Sculpture_in_Garden.jpg Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.
Holbein, H, the Younger c 1532-1543, Sir Philip Hoby, Wikimedia commons, viewed 4 April 2014, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Philip_Hoby,_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg
Holbein, H, the Younger c 1536-1537, Portrait of Jane Seymour, Wikimedia commons, viewed 4 April 2014, http://commons.wikimedia.org
/wiki/File:Hans_Holbein_d._J._032b.jpg
Oop 2012, Sculpture of Nadežda Petrović in Pionirski Park in Beograd, photograph, Wikimedia commons, viewed 4 April 2014, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sculpture_of_Nade%C5%BEda_Petrovi%C4%87_in_Pionirski_Park_in_Beograd_
%28face%29,_October_13,_2012.jpg Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.
Learning Focus
Students begin to understand the historical context of portraiture and how portraits not only capture the image of a person, but also convey feelings and emotions, identity, diversity, culture and community.
Learning Focus
The aim of this activity is for students to learn about and understand the proportions of the face in order to draw a portrait.
Learning Focus
Students create a mixed media self-portrait and develop their understandings of symmetry and facial proportions.
Learning Focus
Student draw portraits of themselves and others and practice applying correct facial proportions.
Now that you have explored Portray Yourself, encourage your students to apply the skills and techniques they have learned to other learning areas. These notes outline suggestions for activities that can be used to enrich a variety of subjects and actively engage students in their learning.
The Arts
Drama
Explore the dramatic art of Butoh:
Butoh is a form of Japanese dance that uses slow and precise movements of the body, and facial expressions, to express different feelings and emotions. A good explanation can be found at Global Shakespeares: Butoh (Japanese dance).
Explore the face and how different emotions are represented.
Younger years
Engage younger students in an activity that explores facial movement and expression in relation to feelings. Ask them to make expressive "faces" to represent the different emotions: happy, sad, angry, peaceful etc. Students then draw these "feelings faces" for display.
Media Arts
Develop a stop motion animation representing different facial expressions as a sequence of movements, eg happy to angry, sad to surprised. Making Media Easy: Create a Stop Motion Animation on ARTS:LIVE outlines the simple process.
English
Essentially, portraiture is about storytelling. We can learn a lot about someone by studying his or her portrait. Use Story Starters: Create a Photostory on ARTS:LIVE to develop some story ideas based on a selection of portraits.
Younger years
Use the "feelings faces" drawings created in the drama suggestions above as a starting point for creating the characters for a story. Construct a simple narrative about feelings and emotional representation.
History
Research historical portraits and analyse what they tell us about the culture and time in which they were made.
What is the art form? Is it sculpture, painting, printing, drawing, photographs etc?
Look at the clothing and style.
What is the setting?
What is in the background?
Make up your own stories about who is in the artwork.
How are things in the portrait different from today?
How are things the same?
What do the images tell us about the trade, profession or lifestyle of the people?
Make a historical timeline by collecting portraits from ancient art through to the modern day.
Display across a wall and discuss how depictions of people have changed over time.
Sustainability
Identify portraits to talk about significant historical events such as the industrial revolution - mechanisation of industry, faster processes used, more demand for products, depletion of resources etc.
Younger years
Print out images of historical and contemporary portraits. Students cut out the characters and collage them together, making a mash-up of eras.
Geography
Collect portraits such as paintings, photographs, drawings or sculptures of people representing a variety of cultures and traditions. Discuss:
Facial features
Similarities and differences
Cultural representation
Traditions.
Collect photographic portraits or images of a variety of people from different cultures. Create some simple collages by cutting up the faces into halves or quarters and mixing up the quadrants to create a hybrid face.
Adapt the Half-Half activity to incorporate the student's face in the collages, eg combining a quarter of the student's face with a quarter of another face, then ask the students to draw the other half.
Mathematics
Reflect on the symmetry of the face and how it is divided into proportions.
Explore the concepts of Fibonacci numbers and the golden mean in relation to the composition of portraits.
Create large-scale portraits by drawing a grid over a reference photo. Draw a larger grid of equal ratio on paper and copy the drawing square by square.
Science
Explore the anatomy of the face. Investigate sets of muscles and their use, eg it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
Research modern technology used in archaeology to reconstruct faces of ancient mummies or "flesh out" a skull.
Become futuristic detectives and explore the concept of facial recognition technology.
Use natural materials and found objects to create some environmental art outside the classroom. Students can make faces out of the materials collected and photograph them. Create a slide show with everyone's images.
Making A Portrait
Take children through the steps of creating a portrait. Include family members or friends by asking people to sit for their portrait. Think about their unique features and personalities and try to capture that in your artwork.
Watch the video and step into the National Gallery of Victoria to learn about portraiture. Get inspired to create your own portrait of someone in your family!