Portraits

Objectives: Learn about famous artists and their self portraits, and have the experience of drawing a portrait. Self portraits are one of the most challenging things to draw. 

Why: Portraits are one of the most difficult, yet desired art types to make. It is a good test of what you have learned this year. It is much easier to make them with good instruction.

Standard: Elements and Principals of Visual Art, Create.

Self Portrait

Look at this slide show for ideas before you start to draw. Many artist draw self portraits. When you pose for yourself, you will pose exactly the way you want the art to look. Look at these artists self portraits. I put Picasso's paintings in this slide show so that you could see his evolution, I would like you to draw your portrait like his youngest painting, or like one of the other artists.

Self Portraits.pptx Download Self Portraits.pptx

Have fun with the way you pose your face for this drawing. I would like to see how realistic you can draw, but I also want you to have fun with the way you pose yourself. Look in the mirror and draw a picture of yourself. This is an incredibly hard skill to develop. I expect your drawing to look like a person. If it looks like you, that is a big plus. 

• I am looking for your ability to block in. Are you accurately seeing where the eyes nose and mouth belong? Eyes are typically half way down the head, etc.
• I will be looking for your use of value. Are you drawing the nose and mouth with value or are you using lines that you imagine are on the nose. There are no defined lines on a nose. Can I see more than three different values? Start drawing very lightly and slowly add in the darker values. In class we will be using 3 different colors of brown pencil. You are welcome to draw this in graphite or what ever you have available to draw with. 
• Are you using texture, Can I tell the difference between the hair and the skin?

This is a good 3 minute video of an artist drawing a homeless man. Notice that he spends considerable time blocking in. He then spends time adding value. The last thing he does is add details, like the eyes. 

https://youtu.be/s2sSm7EP3Wo Links to an external site.

Grading rubric:

4- It looks  like you. All the body parts are in the right position, and you made good use of several value tones and textures.

3- It looks like a person and you made use of value, texture, and position.  

2- It looks like it is human but some of the drawing is made with lines that do not reflect what a human really looks like. Eyes are not in the middle of the head, or nose and lips are outlined. Proportions off a bit. 

1- Drawing of something human like. No use of accurate value or accurate blocking-in. 

This assignment is a typical assignment point wise. It is a drawing that uses most of the skills you have learned this semester. If you do really well, 4 level on this assignment, I will not fail you in this class, and could possibly raise your final grade.