Picture This: Telling Our Tales with Self-Portraits Grades 4-12

Transcription

1 Picture This: Telling Our Tales with Self-Portraits Grades 4-12 Goal To increase awareness of an artist's ability to communicate ideas about the subject of a portrait not only with content but with design choices. They will experience this concept through viewing portraits, discussing the artworks, and by creating a self-portrait. Book Rohmer, Harriet, editor. Just Like Me: Stories and Self-Portraits by Fourteen Artists. Children s Book Press, Focus Art Work Frank Wright The Artist in His Studio, 1977 Oil on canvas 48 x 40 inches Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia Art Production A self-portrait emphasizing contour lines and self-expressive content and design Focus Art Work The Artist in His Studio Frank Wright, The Artist in His Studio, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia

2 Look and Learn Discussion Questions Look at the artwork very carefully. What is the first word that comes to your mind? Name all the objects and people in the painting. What city is the setting for this portrait? Why do you think so? Who is the man in the picture? How do you know? This is a self-portrait. What does the artist tell you about himself from his pose? What do his clothes tell you about him? If you created a self-portrait, what pose would you use to tell something about yourself? What would you wear? In what kind of setting would you place yourself? What colors does the artist use? Do they create a certain mood? What shapes do you see in the painting? What kind of personality do you think this man has? Discovering More About the Artist and the Art: Frank Wright was born in 1932 in Washington, DC. He studied at the American University in Washington and for an extended period in Italy and in Paris. He has taught art for four decades at the Corcoran and at George Washington University. The studio depicted in the painting shows where the artist has worked for 32 years. The studio faces the National Portrait Gallery, a part of the Smithsonian Institution. Wright's paintings have been exhibited there. In the following quotation the artist describes his work: Sources: My paintings and prints represent an effort to depict of my life what is most meaningful: my family, friends, and students; the images conveyed by the things which strengthen a desire to express my life rather than to reflect my time. It is to Humanism and to the respect for man's skill and craftsmanship that my work is dedicated. Sometimes this means looking into the past to rediscover the visual power and expressive language of an earlier medium. Sometimes it means developing a new medium which has new capabilities to help one to speak with quality and clarity. 1. Who s Who in American Art nd ed. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who s Who, Wright, Frank. Biography. Cited June 5, Available from Internet. 3. Wright, Frank. Home Page. Cited June 5, Available from Internet.

3 Picture This: Telling Our Tales with Self-Portraits This lesson is the first from a unit called Picture This: A Book, A Box, and Me: Telling Our Own Tales Visually written by Debi West for a professional development workshop, Telling Tales: Narrative in Southern Art, held during the summer of 2002 at the Morris Museum of Art. Other lessons from the unit will be highlighted in subsequent issues of the E-Connections e-newsletter. The unit is interdisciplinary, including both visual and language arts. Objectives: Participants will view portraits from the Morris Museum's permanent collection and learn about the importance of pose, setting, clothes, and props in visually describing the sitter. Participants will create self-portraits using contour lines. QCC Standards: Key learning standards (in Georgia called the Quality Core Curriculum) are listed below. Though several standards at each grade level are covered, space allows us to list only one per grade. Visual Arts 4.4 Creates artworks using direct observation, lines (descriptive, directional, and expressive), shapes, and space (positive and negative) Plans, organizes, and creates artworks using: form, color, expressing emotion... proportion. 6.2 Creates artworks to depict a mood... or demonstrate proportion. 7.5 Creates a series of artworks that expresses a feeling or emotion. 8.1 Selects subject matter, including symbols and ideas, to communicate a message in an original artwork Describes how subject matter and content interact with the elements of art and principles of design to produce a particular expressive quality. Vocabulary: portrait: a picture of a person self-portrait: a rendering of the artist's own likeness contour line: a line that follows the edge or the edge of a shape or form proportion: scale of relationship of one part of a work of art to the other and to the whole Materials: reproductions, slides, or transparencies of portraits in a variety of styles or portraits from the Morris Museum, available on the museum s web site at one 9 x 18 inch sheet of black construction paper for each student one 12 x 18 inch sheet of colored construction paper for each student chalk pastels self-portrait handout for each student one bottle of white glue for each student one pre- and post-lesson assessment sheet for each student

4 Procedures: 1. View a variety of portraits in various styles and discuss them with students. Point out the contour lines in the portraits. Some questions you might ask are: What does this portrait tell you about the person depicted? Name the objects in the painting. Do they tell a story about the sitter? Look at the setting. Why do you think the artist chose that setting? What does it tell you about the sitter? Do the clothes worn by the person depicted in the portrait tell you anything about him or her? Do the colors the artist used add to the story of the sitter? Can you relate the portrait to anything in your life or your memory? If you could create a painting in the style of this artist, of whom would it be and why? 2. Explain that participants will create a self-portrait on black paper, using glue and contour lines. They can first draw the lines with light colored pastels or chalk, or they may draw directly with the glue. Suggest that they consider what clothes, setting, and objects to include in the self-portrait to tell about themselves. Have them choose a descriptive pose. 3. After they have applied glue to the contour lines, set the portraits aside to dry. 4. During the next class period, students will use chalk pastel to color their portraits, thinking about the color schemes they use and how color choices will help to visually describe them. 5. Students will mount the portraits on the colored construction paper. They may write a caption about the piece under it, using white drawing paper, or let the art speak for itself. Assessment: Students will complete a pre-assessment form before creating the self-portrait. The instructor will conduct assessment in-process by monitoring the students as they are working and helping them to fulfill the objectives. Students will self-assess after the project by completing the Self-Portrait Assessment form. Extensions: Students could write a character sketch about one of the people in the portraits. Have students write a story about who they really are as a frame to go around their self-portraits. Create a mural using the art to tell a tale about the class.

5 Self-Portrait Pre-Assessment Define the following terms: Portrait Self-portrait Proportion Contour line Draw a quick self-portrait: Describe yourself in 30 words or less:

6 Name Self-Portrait Assessment High Level Middle Level Low Level I was creative in telling my tale I used good craftsmanship Color expresses mood or my personality Objects help tell my story The setting reveals clues about me My pose expresses my attitude I dressed to give you a clue about me The thing I like best about my self-portrait is: If I were to create another self-portrait, I would change: Something I learned in this project is that:

7 Self Portrait Sheet Integrated curriculum area: Math Students will be able to recognize and draw faces in proper proportion. Using math concepts, students will be introduced to line (vertical, horizontal), right angles, intersections and symmetry. The teacher will model and demonstrate the portrait drawing method, beginning with facial shapes. The students will draw a vertical line dividing the face symmetrically in half. They will determine the center of the vertical line and draw a straight line horizontally across the face for the eye line. Find ¼ point (nose) and ⅛ point (mouth) in lower portion and draw straight horizontal lines. The students will then add the features on the designated lines. Sample: An educational doodle by dewestudio 2002