Curated OER
Collage Self-Portrait
Here is a beautiful art lesson which has young artists make a collage self-portrait using images of food. Pupils create a two-dimensional self-portrait using pictures of food and food-related items cut from magazines. A highly detailed,...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Pictures of Rock Stars: The Imagined
Youth, fame, and beauty are marks of modern society. Artist Elizabeth Peyton has captured all three in her series of imagined rock star portraits. The class analyzes her use of technique, emotion, and imagination in each of six pieces,...
Global Oneness Project
Today’s Native America
The 2016-2017 protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) motivated Camille Seaman to create "We Are Still Here," a photo essay featuring portraits of contemporary Native Americans who protested the pipeline. This eight-page packet,...
Museum of the American Revolution
George vs. George
It's George versus George in the battle for the American colonies. An interesting activity compares the leadership of George Washington and King George III during the American Revolution. Scholars read text, compare portraits, and...
Teaching Tolerance
Identity Self-Portraits
What symbols represent you best? Individuals consider how they would draw peers using symbols about their identities with an interview and art activity. After conducting interviews and portraits, the art makes a great centerpiece for...
Sargent Art
Facial Proportion Challenge: Freaky Faces
Young artists have fun making freaky faces when they accept the challenge of making proportional portraits. They must find pictures in magazines, cut out two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and then rescale these images into a portrait.
Huntington Library
Light in Painting
How do painters use and manipulate light in their artwork to give emphasis and establish mood and emotion? Pupils will analyze a few examples of landscape and portrait painting in order to explore the how light is used in art, and will...
National Gallery of Canada
A Cultural Portrait
Explore heritage and identity through an examination of art and a related project. The featured art, related to the African diaspora, includes several types of art created by different artists. Pupils consider their own backgrounds and...
National Gallery of Canada
Who Are You?
What can a self-portrait reveal about an artist? Discuss various self-portraits before tasking your pupils with creating their own. Learners research artists, develop an idea of their own individuality, and create photo collages with...
National Gallery of Canada
Self-Portrait, Mirrors and Metamorphosis!
Using M.C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere as inspiration, learners create their own set of self-portraits using various reflective surfaces. The lesson begins with a discussion about portraiture and ends with a presentation of work...
National Portrait Gallery (UK)
Explore Elizabeth I
Keen observation skills are an essential trait for good artists. Discuss the elements of a portrait with your class using terminology such as, full-face, profile, quarter-length, full-length. After that, they can use the included...
Digital Wish
Illustration: Self Portrait in a Masterpiece
Technology and art combine in a creative lesson. Kids discuss portrait art and they search online and save a portrait created by one of their favorite artists. They have their picture taken exactly like their chosen portrait, then use...
New Class Museum
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Portraits: Androgyny in Contemporary Culture
Portraiture, artistic expression, romanticism, and androgyny are discussed in a thought-provoking lesson. Upper graders first discuss and examine the history of portraiture and the elements common to the Romantic style. Then they turn...
Curated OER
All About Me!
Reinforce punctuation skills as well as printing skills with a kindergarten autobiography worksheet. Youngsters write their information, including their name, address, and age, and draw a picture of themselves and the place where they...
Curated OER
About Faces and Fractions
Third graders review concepts of fractions, and one-half. They discuss self portraits and the relationships of eyes, nose and mouth to the whole face. Students create base-line self-portraits. On the second day, 3rd graders observe and...
Curated OER
Lesson: All in the Family
Who was the Radcliffe family? Young learners find out about the life and times of a family from long ago. They analyze the family portrait, write a story about the family, and then use their story to create thought or word bubbles which...
Curated OER
Lesson: From Time to Time
A portrait The Radcliffe Family circa 1742 is inspiration for creative writing and empathetic reasoning. Your class discusses the period in which the piece was painted, then imagines what life was like for one of the people seen in the...
Curated OER
Chatty Cherry Stories
Young artists will respond to reading children's literature, by engaging in original storytelling and representing their own images through the visual arts. Then they orally describe details of people, places, and things in their stories...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Artist's Community: The Real
What is real or imagined? The lines of beauty reality, and imagination are blurred in Elizabeth Peyton's portraits of her community. Learners analyze her use of artistic technique in conveying real and imagined communities. They then use...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Pictures of Royalty: The Imagined
Elizabeth Peyton is an artist who creates images of people (often famous) that she doesn't personally know. These images become part of her imagined community. Learners analyze her work, her community of imagined friends, and then create...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: The Self in the Other's Image: Portraiture and Identity
Art, identity, and an imaginary community, three components that should make for an interesting lesson. Critical thinkers explore and evaluate the work of contemporary artist, Elizabeth Peyton. They discuss her use of subject and art to...
Curated OER
Portrait Parody
Eighth graders use modern materials and technology to create a modern portrait modeled after a Renaissance picture.
Curated OER
An Electronic Self-Portrait Lesson Plan - A Unit for Middle School
Using a photo of themselves for inspiration, learners create a multi-media self-portrait. A digital image of each child is taken, it is uploaded into the computer where is can be experimented with in a digital format. Young artists then...
Curated OER
Portraits in Clay: Elementary Sculpture Lesson
It is lovely how this instructional activity incorporates the importance or personal expression and art history. Children create low-fire ceramic heads that express emotion or personal feelings. The entire process is laid out...