In this lesson, artists learn about facial proportions and discover that they can create a more accurate portrait by learning and following them. They then create a self-portrait using basic proportions.
Students will be working individually, so have materials prepared to go out to tables/desks depending on how your class is set up.
Pencil, pink eraser, drawing paper, optional: mirrors or photos (to help identify features for their portraits), copy paper (for early finishers)
Proportions (one per student)
Proportions, Advanced (This is an optional sheet for students who might be particularly advanced in drawing proportions and need more specifics, such as kids who look at a lot of ‘how to draw’ packets outside of school, or kids who like to draw anime from YouTube videos. Please note that using this handout means that students will not be able to follow along with the film, so is more appropriate for one or two advanced students who can follow instructions from the handout and work independently while the rest of the class follows the film.)
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⚲'In Bed', Ron Mueck, 2005**
Ron Mueck is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor currently working in the United Kingdom. He started out as a prop maker and puppeteer before transitioning to fine art. He makes hyperrealistic sculptures of people where you can see every wrinkle and hair follicle, but then creates them either too large or too small to be real.
Project the inspiration image where students can see it. Give students a moment to study it silently, then begin a brief discussion with the phrase, “What can we find?”. Paraphrase what students say for the benefit of the class, being careful to remain neutral, then ask “What else can we find?”.
Alternately, allow them to draw or write what they notice on a blank piece of paper or in a sketchbook.
The point of this discussion time is to have students learn and add onto each other’s thoughts. By remaining neutral and simply repeating what students say you allow students to do the heavy mental lifting and also create an environment where there is no wrong answer, fostering creativity and mental risk-taking.
NOTE: Pass out paper, pencils, and hand-outs before playing the video. During the ‘guideline’ portion of the video, have students work alongside the film, pausing it as they complete each step when the video says ‘pause’. Commonly, student artists will continue to draw once even after the video starts again. To counter this, consider making a game out of putting their pencils down (count down, fastest student to put their pencil in the middle of the table gets a star on their hand with washable marker, etc.). Remind students that they are just mapping out where the different parts of the face go, they will have time at the end to finesse them. They should draw lightly, and not worry too much about whether or not it looks ‘right’.
Check for understanding by asking, “Who was listening closely that can sum up what we are doing today?” Make sure that student artists can list all the steps and clarify anything that needs clarifying.
The students work independently on their work as the teacher circulates. Foster strong work habits by commenting on student artists who are focused on their work as well as student artist who seems be pushing themselves to try new things.
The focus of this class period is for students to understand how to use guidelines to map our their features; unfortunately, as with very skill-based processes, some of them will likely get frustrated. See ‘anticipated problems’ for solutions. Encourage students to worry less about getting an accurate portrait and more about ‘planning’ their portrait; using guidelines to figure out where the proper placement of things are on their face and creating a rough idea of what they look like. Remind them to draw lightly, as they will probably have to erase! If there are mirrors available, the teacher can offer them to students who have successfully ‘mapped’ out their face, and they can begin refining their features to be a more accurate representation. Encourage kids not to get too nit-picky—next lesson they will have more options to finish and alter their portrait. In fact, if some become frustrated with the details, have them loosely map out where their features belong then put the drawing to the side and work on the ‘early finishers’ project.
Use 'what, how, and why' and then take comments or questions.
Depending on the teacher’s style of classroom management, it might be helpful to only choose and train a few kids to clean. The rest of the class can be busy with the presentation. Make sure to train these helpers well in advance so that you aren’t left with a messy room.
Clean-up times will vary with materials; get to know your class and allow 5-10 minutes depending on how efficient they are and whether or not the material was messy.
Choose presenting student artists in advance and let them know during their work time so that they are prepared.
Sharing should work as follows:
Students might have a hard time drawing the lines; tell them that it takes practice and encourage them to draw lightly. You can offer them a ruler or the side of book (for a straight edge) if one is available. If they are getting frustrated with their drawing abilities, or say “I can’t”, pair them with another student who is being successful at it. Ask the artist partner to help without doing it for them—they can draw on a new sheet of paper to show, but they should never draw directly on the work.
If they don’t think that their drawing looks like them, tell them that sometimes it is difficult to see something clearly when you have been working on it for a long time. Start a group conversation with the other student artists at their table. The group can help out the student by pointing out the problem areas. The student artist can take the advice or not. If they have drawn on the wrong guideline, reference the handout with them.
Get them to relax; if they say something isn’t looking right, have them close their eyes pretend to be blind. They can feel the problematic portion of their face gently with their fingers. With their eyes closed, have them describe what they are feeling (a pointed chin, nose). Ask them to be more descriptive with questions like “Is is larger or smaller than your mouth” or “does it connect to anything else on your face?”
Allow early finishers to return to their tracing paper, look through available books, and add more symbols that represent them.
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