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							                       Teachers' TV Lesson Plan




Title
Drawing Self-Portraits


Lesson Plan Author
Peter Sanders


Associated Teachers’ TV Programme
KS1/2 Art: Drawing Self-Portraits


Programme Description
Developing drawing and observational skills with portraits




Note to Teachers
This lesson plan was not created by Teachers' TV but the author has allowed us to publish it here to be
used for educational purposes.
Drawing Self-Portraits

Lesson Plan: Year 2 (Green Class)

Preparation

This project has had a lead-up of a series of sessions where the children were invited to
explore the materials they were given.

       Materials
       It is essential to have good quality materials in good condition.

              Drawing pencils ranging from B to 3B to allow the children to discover the
               range of marks possible with such a tool.
              Good quality cartridge paper, which has a roughness and grain that allows
               the pencil to grip.
              Mirrors all over the place that children are encouraged to look in as often as
               they like so they get a sense of themselves. For the actual drawing we are
               using fairly large mirrors, held up by cardboard supports (put together by the
               teaching assistant in advance). If you use small mirrors it is hard to see the
               whole face and they are far too fiddly.
              Easel with a large piece of cartridge paper and a range of pencils so that I
               can remind children (or they can remind themselves) of the different marks
               we have made in the past few sessions.
              Range of portraits drawn by other people in the past and a magnifying
               glass to examine them really closely. It isn’t important who drew the pictures,
               rather the techniques they used to achieve the results. We will examine them
               and question them before starting our own work.
              Clothes line and pegs to display portraits for feedback and discussion at the
               end of class.

Introduction

   1. Reminder of how pencils work: line & tone

   “Today we are going to do some self-portraits. A portrait is a picture of a person and a
   self-portrait is a picture someone does of themselves. We’re going to use the beautiful
   drawing pencils to do our drawings and I want to remind you of how they work and what
   they can do.

   “Can somebody make the same marks on this sheet of paper? (Show some of the
   experiment sheets.) Who can remember some of the marks we made? Show me some.
   Which part of the face might they be good for (wiggly lines for hair etc)?”

   2. Observation game
   Ask one child to go out of the room and ask others to describe her or him.

   “Tell me about the way X looks. What is her hair like (colour/style)? What is it about Y
   that makes us know it is her/him? Can you remember what clothes the person was
   wearing?”

   Bring the child back in.
  “How well did we remember?”

  Emphasise the importance of looking so that we can know more.


  3. Looking at other drawings

  “Here are some drawings that other people have done. Can you point to a dark part of
  the drawing? How has the artist made it look dark? Why is that part of the face dark
  anyway (shadow)? Where do you think the light was shining from? (Use magnifying
  glass.)”

The Lesson

  Send children to their pre-prepared places (“If you have green eyes go to your place,”
  etc.)

  “Look at your face. What shape is it? How much of it is covered by hair? How far down
  your head are your eyes, your ears? Try to spot one thing about your face that you
  hadn’t noticed before.

  Now we’re going to start. If you make your drawings quite big it will help you to fit
  everything in. You might start by letting your pencil very gently and lightly draw the
  shape of your face. Now look under your chin. Where does the neck meet it?

  Now look at how far the mouth is from the chin. Look at your lips. Where is there a line?
  How long is it, does it curve? What is underneath that line (shadow)? Keep looking at
  where different things are on your face and check to see how close they are to other
  features. Squint your eyes. Point to the bits on your face where you can see darker parts
  (eye sockets, under nose etc). Add that darkness to your drawing.”

  Work on in this way encouraging lots of checking and sitting back to look for about 10
  minutes.

  “Everyone stop!”

   Ask targeted children to hold up their drawings where they have solved a drawing
  problem in some way. Point that out and encourage others to pinch the idea if it’s going
  to work. What technique did they use?

  “Carry on. Squint eyes again and hold drawing away from you. If you can’t see any
  detail the whole drawing must be too light and it needs some more shading (tone).”

Feedback

  Each child is asked to add their work to the washing line at the end of the room using
  pegs already prepared.

  “Choose one drawing that really stands out to you. What is it about it that you think is
  good?”

  Tease out some art points here.
   “I like the way X has…”
   “I think they could make their drawing even better if they…”
   “Next I think they need to…”

   “You are going to carry on with these drawings next week. You might like to think what
   you would like in the background of your picture: books, computer, toys etc.”

   Lesson ends!


Equipment

Postcards of different portraits: these should show different kinds of mark-making.
Postcards available from art galleries (The National Portrait Gallery is a good source). These
should be blown up on the photocopier to make them easier to see.

      2B – 6B drawing pencils (3B are ideal), £2. 90 per pack of 12
      Large unbreakable mirrors £6. 15 per pack
      A4 laminated cartridge starter sketchbooks @ £7.49 per pack of 10