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PORTRAITURE

I’ve taught Drawing and Painting for a few years now at TBHS. And even in the Fundamentals curriculum we have portraiture as a part of the curriculum. When the announcement is made, “Okay class, for our next project we’re starting portraiture” the whole class erupts in groans (besides those 2-3 kiddos) After the groans subside I hear 2 things, “Why do we have to do this, AGAIN” and “I hate drawing/looking at myself” like, why do we pick the time when most human’s self-efficacy and confidence are so low and then tell them to draw themselves. SO- What I try to impress to my students is that portraiture can be so much more than a life-like pencil drawing. It should be an image that expresses something about you/them, whether personal, universal, physical or otherwise. In the hopes that they will stop dreading “portraiture”

Previously in our Drawing and Painting classes the portrait section involved a large-scale grided portrait of that person. I have so many, so so many examples from students who just didn’t want to take theirs… Even if they were high quality. (Show examples left from year’s past). What this told me is that the students didn’t feel connected to the work they were creating. Do I have all the answers to student engagement?! Absolutely not. But I’m here willing to try and meet the students needs and push them intellectually.

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TECHNOLOGY

MATERIALS: ��Sketchbook

Bazaart

ProCreate

Keynote

Touch-Responsive Pen

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CONTOUR LINE PORTRAIT

MATERIALS: ��Copy Paper / Sketchbook

V-Ball Pens / Markers

Watercolor Paper in 2 sizes

Cups & Paint Brushes

Found Objects

PROJECT PPT LINKED HERE

Mini Technique 1: Blind Contour Portraits. We are art teachers and we learn through experience so I’d like to do this mini-exercise with you! Our HS is on block schedule and this project takes a little over 1 day. In class we go through a quick PPT. In these PPTs I give links to tutorials, artist websites, articles, examples, etc. but I often do not go to them in class. I will introduce the topic and encourage students to follow up individually if the topic/style intrigues them.

Students are still learning the submission process at this point. They need to practice the skills of being an artist like communication and experimentation. What you’re seeing here are student examples from years past. This includes all

If you’re wanting to shorten this assignment you could do the final contour drawing on drawing paper and NOT work with the water and inkwash

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GESTURE DRAWING

MATERIALS: ��Pencil / Sketchbook

Charcoal / Newsprint

Marker / Copy Paper

PROJECT PPT LINKED HERE

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CUT PAPER PORTRAITS

MATERIALS: ��Copy Paper / Sketchbook

Construction Paper

Scissors

Stick Glue

Found Objects

PROJECT PPT LINKED HERE

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FACULTY CARICATURES

MATERIALS: ��Copy Paper / Sketchbook

Reference Images

Workbook of Features

Drawing Paper

Pencils / Etc

PROJECT PPT LINKED HERE

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FACE MAPPING

MATERIALS: ��Copy Paper / Sketchbook

Pencils

Rulers

PROJECT PPT LINKED HERE

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OTHER IDEAS

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MEMORY PORTRAITS

MY STYLE 10 WAYS

MONOCHROMATIC PAINTINGS

SKIN TONE EXPERIMENT

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SELF-PORTRAIT

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BRAINSTORMING / ART HISTORY

LIST OF QUESTIONS HERE

RESEARCH WS

What goes into WHO we are. I got this idea as part on an AP Studio prep-program. The students generate a few questions in their minds or on paper. They group by table or by and have a “Fireside Chat” or Round Robin where each person asks a question. Some of these might be silly, some might be serious or personal so students are only required to write down their answer. They can share out if they like. To extend and have more questions you can have each group share out one of their questions and make a master-list on the board/document/etc. It could even be gamified where the group who comes up with the most unique questions wins a prize or something! Let’s make our own list now. Other things you can do to get the group thinking could be a stand up/sit down game.

When I taught Art Fundamentals I would keep universal lists on the board with sayings/attributes from each person in the class. One of the boards would say, ”I am”. The students would do a similar fireside round-robin by just saying one word or phrase, sister, sibling, smart, tall, awkward, future dentist, Asian-American, kind etc. We would go around 5 or 6 times out loud then choose something to write on the board anonymously. We would then talk about our class culture and who we are as a group. There’s so much that goes into who we are. It’s important to look at artists to approach this topic as well.

Bottom-line everyone’s brainstorming process is going to look different. For some it’s list-making, web-mapping, image-collecting, swatch-making, idea-sketching, etc. I don’t limit or require specific things from the students because I want them to explore their own process. The key thing is that the document it.

Providing Art Historical Examples: When completing each mini-project, technique or introduction I try to include images from contemporary and art-historical individuals. My students keep sketchbooks as daily practice so I encourage them to write down any names/images that peek their interest for future research/ideation. In class my students are 1 to 1 with iPads so to provide an other source of imagery we complete a virtual discussion board in which they have to search around the National Portrait Gallery’s website, find an image that interests them and make a post that speaks to the mood, identity and inspiration from that piece. This is an important part of the process because I don’t want to be the only one telling them what art is good/interesting/important/etc. In a no-tech or low-tech classroom this could be done by displaying 4 images on the board and having students hold up their fingers to show which artwork appeals to them the most; have an informal discussion afterward. You could also print/cut out a class set of images to place in small groups; ask the students to pick out their favorite and write pair share their ideas with a shoulder partner or someone around the room. Either way, looking at examples, formulating their own opinions and expressing them is so important.

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STAND UP IF

You’ve travelled out of the country

You have a sibling

you’ve written with a quill pen

You enjoy coffee…

You’ve drawn one of these

You are an ART TEACHER

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

While creating this self portrait I focused in on my desire for peace and harmony, this is elaborated through the neutral color scheme and implementation of nature: plants. Taking a minimalistic approach I utilized line sketching to outline personal portraits. I prefer to live my life simply and effectively while maintaining a peaceful environment. I don’t like confrontation or anger, and the simplicity drives away any anxiety. Whenever I begin to feel overwhelmed by life, I try to escape by reading a book in my room, I often refer to it as my sunroom since the windows are always open, houseplants fill the shelves, and books line the walls. I make sure the bindings of the book touch the wall though to eliminate a bold variety of colors and maintain the neutral color scheme using the yellowish color of the book pages. I attempted to capture the essence of the calm version of myself through this self portrait.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

So it’s actually kind of funny how I chose my project. I was feeling like I wanted to do something with wings so I thought a cute painting of fairies would be perfect. But as I started to draw the outline I was like this isn’t the right thing for me to do. So I started to look into angels and I was like maybe I can make something for my friend who passed away. But then I saw a photos of butterflies and kept searching. I found the right one and started to draw it out. At first I was very hesitant but then I started to come up with ideas and decided to use the thickest paint. As I started painting I felt a sense of comfort because I know I chose the right idea.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

This is my drawing, I call it, Noah’s perspective, this is a drawing of how I see the world at the moment anyway. It’s very hectic both personally and non personnel stuff like COVID 19.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Something I really enjoy to do after a long day is sit and watch sunsets… I wanted to display my love for watching sunsets and show how I feel in an art form. I usually get a warm fuzzy feeling which brings me peace. I used warmer tones to represent warmth and comfort. The art style i went with was more simplistic with this self portrait to try something new and focus more on the colors than the realism of the piece.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I started by planning what kind of self portrait I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to include either my friends or family, or aspects of them at least, as they best represent me. Then I decided on basing my portrait on my brother Jackson alone, as he’s my family and my best friend. I knew I wanted to collage him in the shape of a face and it ended up being based mostly off of his, I printed images of him in black and white then ripped them. I then chose my, and his favorite color blue for the background. I ripped the blue images out of magazines just for a more unorganized, chaos effect. Then to add to this I left the edges ripped hanging off the paper. At this point I had the top layer of collaged images of my brother and the background of the ripped blue, so I needed a way to make his silhouette stand out agains the background. So I cut a black paper down to size so there was a small outline behind him. I did the black for half then decided to add ripped notecards behind the other half of him as he has sight word flash cards he practices with every night.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Why I drew what I drew was because of the location and what memories it holds. This is different parts of my cousin’s creek where we’ve had the most fun. The largest tree closest to the front on the left is a big tree we would take photos on and climb around. The rock wall on the right we walk on a long . And the little waterfalls on bottom right leads to another part of their creek i love. The dip in the middle is just a fun place. All of this represents what I love and hold tons of memories for me.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

When I first started to think about what to do for my self portrait is to do a bust in the 2004 animated The Batman style. But, then I thought about how it didn’t have to be a bust and started thinking about the scene from the Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 2 scene when he walks away from the Spider-Man suit because I grew up watching to the Sam Rami’s Spider-Man movies. Then went to the Thomas and Martha Wayne murder that I grew up watching in the Tim Burton’s and Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, so the location had to be in a alley. Then I started looking for inspiration in Batman comics because I loved reading Batman Who Laughs, which the art was by Greg Capullo that I inspired the style to be based off. When I came across the comic panel from Batman Hush that told me to do the pose. Then for outfit design, I got it from Red Hood because it is pretty intimidating and the background of Gotham was because all of it being based off Batman or I do a lot of research on the Bat-Fam

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

The mug represents me in the begin of the year after losing both of my parents, then the flower represents how this experience has taught me how to grow and how it’s shaped me, the brown puddle represents coffee because i drink coffee every day to keep me going, the butterfly represents beauty and freedom which is something i strongly believe in, the darker fall colors represent the feeling of chilly-ness and fall because that’s my favorite season and the blue is my mother as she complimented my orangey earthy tones.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

For my self-portrait, I chose a black and white style. I've always personally been very inspired by horror web novels and manga. Some authors that inspire me: Junji Ito, Kuraishi Yuu, Mizutani Kengo, Carby Kim, and Youngchan Hwang. To convey the mood, their work is always done in dull colors. And for the beetles, I don’t really like live bugs. However, I really enjoy beetle, butterfly, moth, and mantis taxidermy. One of my favorite beetles is actually shown in the portrait. I love bugs (beetles) so much because it almost looks like they aren’t part of this world. And their colors? It's unusual to find blue in nature... some beetles are naturally blue.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

In this self portrait I made the room bare to represent how I have few interests in things except generally music based things. This is also why I had the character playing a guitar. There is also a clock and Calendar to represent two things which are wasting time and analyzing things. Both things that I do a lot but I also represent the analysis portion of the meaning through a mirror. I also have the room basically destroyed because it represents the house I live in in real life which is kinda always in a mess.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

For my portrait I wanted to emit an ethereal and peaceful feeling. Imagery that portrayed this for me was insects (butterflies specifically), flowers, the sun, along with others. I also wanted to include my favorite colors purple & yellow in my project because I think they fit with the tone I wanted to portray as well as worked together in regards to color theory. So using all these pieces I created a portrayed featuring me (created with colored pencils with flowers in my hair, looking up at a purple butterfly (created using watercolor and sharpie, and popsicle sticks) while the sun (created using watercolor) shines behind me in the circular background. This portrays me by symbolizing growth and change using the butterfly and just the idea of just relaxing and letting the sun shine bright.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

My artwork has many elements in it. First is the the face which is made up of Newton, Einstein, Pythagoras, Euclid, and Me. The body of the head is a photo of a math teacher and that their is also a smart board with my name on it further expressing that I am teaching. The background is made to look like a classroom with the color of the walls being a bit bland with a math poster on it. Finally the actual students are pictures of me from behind. This artwork was meant to express my love of math and my desire to become a math teacher.

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EXAMPLES

PERSONAL STATEMENT

So basically I made this project to represent the different moods I go through I’m very moody and can’t control my feelings so why not create an art about it. The first mood is laughing I’m very bubbly and every where I can tend to be very annoying. The second mood is me being annoyed I get very annoyed fast but I’m still super nice. The third mood is then me being upset or mad, I’m this mood 75% of the day, it’s just my thing lol being mad. Then my back ground is a scribble, it relates to everything going on in my head.

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CRITIQUE

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THANK YOU

After this presentation I hope that you will implement some new portraiture-based projects, techniques or teaching methods in your classroom. Please let me know what works and what didn’t. I’d love to hear back from everyone.

SEND FEEDBACK OR FOLLOW UP TO:

ram778@truman.edu or zieglerr@troy.k12.mo.us