Our grade 6 students have finished their unit on portrait painting. Their unit question was “How do our personal experiences shape our identity?” and our significant concept was “Our culture affects our identity.” With their paintings, students were to select and represent themselves either through identity, culture or emotion. Some of these aspects could have been achieved through background, pose, colour and brushwork etc.
I think the unit needs some refinement, especially with painting noses! Until I get to that, you can view the artwork through Flickr here. If interested, you can read two student reflections here and here. (Note: I co-teach the grade with my colleague Mr. W)
What a busy last few weeks as the majority of all my classes conclude their first unit. That was a lot of marking.
Grade 6 students have finished their portrait drawings. You can view the unit outline here and see student work by going directly to Flickr here. Included are students’ first drawing and their final one.
Grade 7s have finished their unit on Visual Journals. Students were required to create a summative journal on their Field Studies trip. The unit outline may be found here. The Flickr set is mammoth and the ability levels all ranging. Two strong examples may be found here and here.
Grade 8s have also finished their first unit on abstract art. You can view the week by week breakdown of the lessons here. Student work may be viewed here.
Our grade 6s have finished their portrait painting unit. The unit changed slightly from last year as students had to distinguish among the various functions of portraiture and create their own expressive portrait in paint to explore issues with identity, culture or emotion. You can view the slideshow below or view directly via Flickr here.
I just completed my first MYPGrade 6 unit on portrait drawing. I taught the unit last year but tweaked it due to the MYP programme requirements. I am really pleased with how it went. The MYP is based around an Area of Interaction, a Unit Question and a Significant Concept. My biggest challenge is the unit question and I spend a lot of time on it, as I try not to mention “art” so it can be transferred to other subjects.
The unit focuses on some basic drawing skills and is very technical. It then dawned on me to simply make it “How does observing help us learn?” since that’s what we really trying to achieve. The unit starts off discussing this and we refer to it again and again throughout the unit. I must admit that including this has improved the unit and had the students more engaged than previous years. You can view their work in the embedded slideshow below or go directly to the Flickr set here for faster access. I included the students’ pre-assessment drawings and their summative drawing at the end of the unit. What a difference!
(NOTE: As of Nov. 21, the set only contains one group out of three classes resulting in 30 photos. Once my colleague passes on his photos, I’ll upload them too.)
I am eager now to start the next one on portrait painting, which has the question “How do personal experiences shape our identity?”
I was two weeks behind schedule but have managed to complete my “Hail, Hail Rock ‘n’ Roll” drawing project. I attempted one music personality a day with a lyric quote that influenced me whilst growing up. Most works are done in marker and are B4 (25cm x 35cm) in size. In total, there are 61 pieces (not bad for 6 weeks). Check the slideshow below or view via Flickr here if too slow. If interested, they are also on my sketchblog where I try to post an artwork a day. (I used ShapeCollage for the above photo, which is free)
My first group of grade 6 students just finished their portrait paintings. The works did not have to be realistic. Instead, they are encouraged to explore colour and brushwork. Some took influence from art movements or artists and some simply experimented with the tempera paint. You can view the five week project outline here and the Flickr set here.
I created this presentation for my grade 6 art students who will be working on expressive portrait painting. Feel free to use it if you wish or provide comments or feedback. You can also view the five week unit timeline here.
We’re on holiday for our mid-semester break and I decided to stay put to get some art done. Well the break is halfway over and I finally managed to squeeze some time in. I thought I’d do a self-portrait with acrylic gouache as I teach this next semester and I am a little rusty. Four and a half hours later I managed to pump this out in A3 size. I also photographed the process to create the video below. Not my best work but it feels good to do some artwork again! (That’s the problem when you teach art, you don’t have time to do your own.)
“To celebrate Youth Music’s 10th Birthday, 70 of the world’s greatest musicians and visual artists have created a groundbreaking body of collaborative artwork based on Rankin’s iconic portraits of musicians.
As part of National Youth Music Week 2009, Youth Music will take over Phillips De Pury London for a festival of art and live music featuring performances from Destroy artists.
Original works by Damien Hirst, Douglas Gordon, Debbie Harry, Michael Stipe, U2, Mat Collishaw, Marianne Faithfull and many others will be auctioned to support the UK’s biggest music charity for young people.”
View the Gallery to see the original Rankin photo and how it was ‘destroyed’ by another artist. I think students would enjoy a project like this by using celebrity photos from magazines or even taking and using photos of themselves, which a partner could then reinterpret. I may consider this when I do portrait painting with grade 6 students next semester.
This whole Rankin approach sounds similar to a portrait party.
My first round of grade 6 students (11 years old) have just completed their self-portraits unit. Feel free to view the simple five week unit here. To introduce the unit, blind portrait drawings were done, which I blogged about before here. Students then used mirrors to draw their portraits without instruction (70 minutes). These pre-assessment drawings are included in the video, followed by their final piece. Some students made remarkable improvements.
I tried a different approach that was inspired from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Photos were taken and cross hairs applied. Students then drew these cross hairs onto their A3 sheets and a middle tone was then added over their paper. 2B~6B pencils were used to add further value and tone, and erasers for highlighted areas. If you teach portrait drawing, I have other ideas and resources on my wiki as well. I may consider a portrait party for a future group. Enjoy!
View the 
