an abstract/realistic portrait lesson plan

The teacher's sample of an
abstract/realistic portrait.

Topic: An abstract and realistic portrait
Topic: introducing the differences between abstract and realistic portraiture.

Goals & Objectives:

• I will expect that 80% of my students will demonstrate proficiency at the GLE level for the completion of this portrait assignment. 
• Art GLEs are 5^th grade level benchmarks for the Fine Arts Content Standards in the Show-Me Standards for Missouri Public Schools. Pupils are expected to refine their skills and increase their control of each media they use to complete art projects.   
• At each grade level, students are to demonstrate their knowledge from previous years as well as those specified for their current grade level.

GLEs:

Strand I: Product/Performance for Subject Matter: Fine Art

A.3. Communicate ideas about subject matter and themes in artworks created for various purposes

Grade 4 - Portrait: Create facial features in correct proportion, Exaggerate, distort, or simplify features to create an abstract portrait, Still Life: Exaggerate, distort, or simplify observed objects to create an abstract still life, Landscape: Create an original seascape

Grade 5 - Portrait: Create a portrait from observation, Still Life: Create a still life from observation that shows the illusion of form, Landscape: Create an original outdoor scene to show the illusion of space

Strand II: Elements and Principles – Proportion

F. 2. Select and use principles of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork.

Grade 4 - Identify realistic facial proportions

Grade 5 - Identify and use relative size (realistic scale)

Grade: 5th -6th

Length of Class Period: 55 min.

Frequency of Class Period: once a week

Time Needed: two class periods

Facility & Equipment Requirements:

• One computer lap top
• Room with good lighting
• Large tables, approximately ten, each seating four students
• Two sinks
• Dry erase board
• Drying racks
• Cabinets for storage
• Projector for viewing computer video, CDs and DVDs

Resources needed: Visual aids such as: books, slides, web pages, reproductions and sample art works.

Materials per student:

Students should collect or be provided with the following materials:

• white drawing paper
• crayons, markers, and colored pencils
• a large photograph of a person torn from a magazine or a photograph they may cut in half of a person
• scissors

Step-by-step studio activity specifics:

Phase 1: Introduction: Clarify goals and establish set: The goal of this lesson is to teach students the difference between an abstract portrait and a realistic portrait and to also teach them how to create an original artwork that includes both perspectives.

• The first objective is to teach students a clear understanding of the differences between realistic portraits and abstract portraits. Each child should be able to either write or explain out loud what these differences are by the end of the unit using the common vocabulary attributed to the characteristics of both portrait types.
• The second objective is to train the eyes and hands of students as they process through the lesson plan. Every child in the classroom should turn in a completed art assignment by the end of the unit.

Teacher's sample Venn Diagram with answers.

Phase 2: Provide examples and non-example pairs: 

• In this case I will either introduce the lesson with a slide show, with an actual display of artwork or with a book display in which the pairs of abstract and realistic portraits will be shown side by side during this concept lesson. The resources that are available will determine which of these introductions I use. 
• We will then most likely have a lively discussion about the differences between abstraction and realistic portraiture, during which I will expect students too participate in filling out a graphic organizer (Venn Diagram, just left) that I will both draw on the board and hand out work sheets for them to take notes on. The lesson should take approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes or two and a half class periods. 
• After class discussions, I will hand out the art project materials and review the instructions. I have attached a sample graphic organizer to this lesson plan. I have filled out the answers in red, so that a substitute will understand the anticipated responses from the class. Below is a list of teacher generated focus questions that may be used during the presentation as well.

      I’ve also included a vocabulary list just below that students will need to hear the instructor use in reference to the slide presentation and will be included in the quiz they are to be given after completing the portrait art project.

Vocabulary list:

1.  portrait - A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.
2. profile - an outline of something (especially a human face as seen from one side)
3. frontal view - a head-on view of the sitter, when the sitter directly faces the viewer
4. side view - a view from the side of something
5. representational portrait - representational is another word for realistic when someone is discussing art (used especially of art) depicting objects, figures,or scenes as seen; "representational art"; "representational images"
6. abstract portrait - In the case of a portrait, a person's face is represented by strategically simplifying all types of information associated with their appearance.
7.  patron - The person who pays for an artist to have either his likeness recorded or someone else's.

Teacher Generated Focus Questions: that I will ask the students during the slide show:

• What characteristics make a realistic portrait look real?
• Do you think an artist would need a lot of training to create a portrait like this? If so, why?
• What do you think is the difference between an abstract portrait and a realistic portrait?
•  What are the words we might use to describe an abstract portrait?
• What are the techniques an artist might use to create an abstract portrait?
• What is the difference between a profile and a portrait?
• What is the difference between a frontal view and a side view?

Primary Art Activity, The Portrait Art Project: Students will learn about portraits through the individual activity of the art project combined with the discussions they hear and by observing both professional artwork and the artwork of their peers. Students may do all of these activities in a relaxed social environment grouped together with their peers at tables. This kind of environment encourages children to interact and learn information from each other. School children learn artistic languages by the constant use of those languages within a peer environment. They may not always be aware of this experience as educational. Artists call this learning activity "modeling" or "simulating." Students also use art projects to learn process and knowledge through "discovery" which will immediately lead them to "inquiry". Both of these methods are constructivist models that have been used in the art classrooms and academies for centuries.

Phase 3: Check student attainment of concepts: After the students have finished their primary art assignment they will be given both a short quiz worth 30 points and a rubric evaluation of their art project worth 70 points. I have included both a sample quiz and a grading rubric with this lesson plan.

Phase 4: Analyze student thinking processes: A copy of "Analyze Your Art!" in this packet. Discussions concerning the student projects will follow the return of quizzes and rubrics. This discussion is similar to a critique but varies slightly in that only the attributes of each project are pointed out. It is not a time for students to discuss their opinions about each other’s talents, but a time to learn “how” to analyze the visual information in front of them.

Modifications for Students With Special Needs:

Modifications for the hard-of-hearing or deaf student:

• Student will be seated closer to instructor so they will be better equipped to hear instructions or read lips
• Student will be provided with written instructions so that they read about the discussions and demonstrations
• The instructor may use a amplification devise provided by the school or student’s parents

Modifications for the student with limited vision or blindness:

•  will be allowed to observe samples of art projects with their hands and for extended periods of time
• Students will be provided with safe tools and one-on-one guidance during a demonstration of the project
• The project may be slightly adjusted to accommodate the student’s limitations or for safety reasons
•  Student will be given ample time to exist classroom before large crowds gather outside of the classroom.

Modifications for students with mild brain injury:

• Students will be provided with duplicate instructions for home and school. Student will not need to remember to carry home materials to review.
• Students will be given ample time to exist classroom with a pre-determined aid or peer before the official end of a class.
• Instructor will provide for parent e-mail communication concerning the progress and needs of their student.
• Student may be given special seat assignment in order to enable his participation in class appropriately. Specific peers may be better equipped to articulate projects visually for this student.

Cleanup Time & Strategy: Students will be instructed to put away art materials neatly in their containers, clean off their tables, and recycle their trash two minutes prior to dismissal. Teachers should rinse off the brayers and glass sheets.

Formal Assessment: Short Quiz for Abstract/Realistic Portrait Unit (worth 30 pts.)

All lesson plans and photographs by Grimm copyright 2011

contour drawing lesson with anna stump

       "In this video lesson I demonstrate a continuous line contour drawing technique. Drawing a face from a life model, I start at the nose, and draw the entire face and neck without lifting the pen. Contour drawings should be slow and careful." Anna Stump. 

      Ms. Stump is a teacher who is both pleasant to watch and listen to at the same time. These are very important attributes to have when making video. Students pick up on sound and visuals more than some people think they do. For this reason alone it is a worthy pursuit to list excellent video makers appropriate to the art classroom.

      Because some of Anna Stump's videos are for adult art students only, educators will need to review her videos prior to showing them to minor aged students.

Graphic Graffiti Lesson Plan

Teacher's samples in progress

Title: Graphic Graffiti 

Topic: graffiti artworks, keeping art legal, gang culture

Objectives:

Students will identify characteristics and also values of gang culture in America and demonstrate graffiti design reflecting how these issues are related to themselves in order to complete a onepoint perspective drawing by the end of this lesson.

Goals:

• Students will create word art using one point perspective.
• Students will demonstrate the design principles and elements concerning line, space, balance and unity.
• Students will assess their own artwork through topical discussions based upon cultural aesthetics.
• Students will discuss issues in art concerning power.

Fine Art GLEs:

STRAND I: Product/Performance

Select and apply two-dimensional media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas and solve challenging visual art problems

A. High School Level I

• Create smooth, continuous value through even pressure
• Define edge through variations in pressure or angle
• Demonstrate proficiency using a single drawing media
• Use a ruler to create parallel, perpendicular, and converging lines

STRAND I: Product/Performance

3. Communicate ideas about subject matter and themes in artworks created for various purposes

C. High School Level I 

• Create original artwork that communicates ideas through themes (e.g., identity, power, time, nature, illusion)

STRAND V: Historical and Cultural Contexts (HC)

1. Compare and contrast artworks from different historical time periods and/or cultures

A. High School Level I 

• Identify works from gang cultures in America

STRAND V: Historical and Cultural Contexts (HC)

1. Compare and contrast artworks from different historical time periods and/or cultures.

B. High School Level I

• Compare and contrast two artworks on: subject matter, ideas and beliefs of culture, material/technology and function of art in culture/society.

STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)

1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork

A. Line: High School Level I

• Identify and use weighted contour, parallel, and perpendicular lines

STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)

1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork

G. Space: High School Level I

• Identify and use positive and negative space in two-dimensional work
• Identify and use perspective techniques to create the illusion of space (one-point linear perspective, overlapping, and change of size, detail, placement, value contrast)

STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)

2. Select and use principles of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork

A. Balance: High School Level I

• Differentiate among and use symmetrical (formal), asymmetrical (informal), and radial balance

STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)

2. Select and use principles of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork

E. Unity: High School Level I

• Explain how elements and principles create unity in artworks

STRAND III: Artistic Perceptions (AP)

1. Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks

A. Aesthetics: High School Level I

• Discuss personal beliefs about the nature of art
• Define aesthetics as the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and value of art
• Discuss and develop answers to questions about art, such as: What is art? and Why do responses vary?
• Who decides what makes an artwork special, valuable or good?

Grade: 9^th – 12^th 

Length of Class Period: 55 minutes

Frequency of Class Period: five days a week

Time Needed: five class periods

Facility & Equipment Requirements:

• One computer lap top
• Room with good lighting
• Large tables, approximately ten, each seating four students
• Two sinks
• Dry erase board
• Drying racks
• Cabinets for storage
• Projector for viewing computer video, CDs and DVDs

Resources Needed:

• Power point presentation about one point perspective
• Slide show depicting graffiti artwork
• Power point presentation about “death script”
• The film, “The Outsiders”

Materials Per Student:

• Newsprint
• Drawing paper
• Pencils and colored pencils
• Tooth brush
• Black India Ink
• Paint brush

Motivation- Looking and Talking Activity: I will play scene selections from the film called, “The Outsiders.” Students will then be given time to meet with small groups and discuss the following questions posted on the board.

1. Why do young people live by the rules of neighborhood gangs?
2. How do gangs reflect tribal concepts?
3. How and why do larger organized governments clash with gang mentality?
4. How can gangs live peacefully with big government do you think?

Step-by-Step Studio Activity Specifics:

1. I will select and play scenes from the film, “The Outsiders.”
2. Students will have small group discussions about this film.
3. I will introduce a slide film about graffiti.
4. Students will be given newsprint to practice drawing letterforms in one-point perspective.
5. Students will then observe me while I draw a one point perspective.
6. I will lead a smaller topical discussion based upon a presentation discussing “Death Script.” Students will be asked to think about these questions: What is Death Script? How is it related to gang graffiti? And how is music related to Death Script and graffiti?
7. The studio project is introduced.
8. A formal self-assessment is completed at the end of the project.

Health & Safety Concerns: There are no health and safety concerns for this project.

Special Needs Adaptations:

Modifications for the hard-of-hearing or deaf student:

• Student will be seated closer to instructor so they will be better equipped to hear instructions or read lips
• Student will be provided with written instructions so that they read about the discussions and demonstrations
• The instructor may use a amplification devise provided by the school or student’s parents

Cleanup Time & Strategy: Students will be instructed to put away art materials neatly in their containers, clean off their tables, and recycle their trash two minutes prior to dismissal.

Assessment: A formal assessment/grading rubric sheet is included along with this lesson plan.

All photos and lesson plans copyrighted by Grimm 2026

a doodle portrait lesson plan

Title of Lesson: A Doodle Portrait
Goals of the Lesson: (goals are long-term aims that you want to accomplish)

Teacher sample

1. Students will be able to use storytelling/writing and listening to help created a definition of a community.
2. Students will  able to identify their own community through art activities and classroom discussion.
3. Students will able to appreciate positive aspects of their own private and public heritage.

Objectives of the Lesson: (concrete attainments that can be achieved, measurable)

• Students will use the projects to learn the importance for the community.
• Students will be more aware of the advantages and disadvantages of a community.

Depth of Knowledge:

• Recall & Reproduction (DOK 1) - Recall facts, terms, concepts, trends, generalizations and theories
• Skills & Concepts/Basic Reasoning (DOK 2) - Describe or explain how or why
• Strategic Thinking/Complex Reasoning (DOK 3) - Recognize and explain patterns
• Extented Thinking/Reasoning (DOK 4) - Analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources

Show Me Standards: (appropriate label & description)

• (VA2) FA2 - Artists communicate ideas through artworks by selecting and applying art elements and principles.
• (VA3) FA3 - Viewer's respond aesthetically to artworks based upon their personal experience and cultural values. Viewers analyze, interpret, and evaluate the quality of artwork through art criticism.
• (VA5) FA5 - Visually literate citizens understand the role and functions of art in history and culture. Artists influence and are influenced by the cultures and time periods in which they live.

GLE’s addressed in lesson: (appropriate label & description)

• EP.1.B.5 Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork. Shapes. Identify and use symbolic shapes.
• AP.1.A.5 Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks. Aesthetics. Discuss and develop answers to questions about art, such as: Who decides what makes an artwork special, valuable or good?
• HC.1.B.5 Compare and contrast artworks from different historical time periods and/or cultures. Characteristics of Artworks. Compare and contrast two artworks on: Theme, Purpose of art in culture, and Use of materials and technology.

Cross-curricular connections:
     Standards: (appropriate label & description)

1. ST - CA 4, 1.8, 2.1 and FR - II 6d, III 4c, IV 3f, 5-8
2. ST - CA 5,6 1.5 and FR - I 2h, IV 1d, K-4
3. ST - CA 2,3 1.1, 1.4 and FR - I 2a, d, III 1d, K-4
4. ST - CA 5 1.5 1.7, 2.7 and FR - I 6h, II 5 f & I, III 1j, 3a, K-4

GLE’s For Communication Arts: (appropriate label & description)

1. Writing. 3.A.5 Write effectively in various forms and types of writing. Narrative and Descriptive Writing. Write personal narrative text that chronicles a sequence of events and/or focuses on the development of a single event.
2. Listening and Speaking. 1.A.4 Listening and Speaking. Develop and apply effective listening skills and strategies. Listening Behavior. Demonstrate listening behaviors (e.g., prepares to listen, listens without interruptions, maintains eye contact.
3. Information Literacy. 1.A.4 Develop and apply effective research process skills to gather, analyze and evaluate information. Research Plan. Formulate and research keywords and questions to establish a focus and purpose for inquiry.
4. Information Literacy. 2.A.4 Develop and apply effective skills and strategies to analyze and evaluate oral and visual media. Media Messages. Identify and explain intended messages conveyed through oral and visual media.  

Time Needed: 45 minutes - 55 minutes
Facility & Equipment Requirements: We will be teaching the following project inside of a regular classroom. Students will need their own small, personal space to complete the project. If a computer is available we will have a slide show prepared for the students to watch. Samples of the project will also be brought in case there is no appropriate way to view the power point.
Resources:

• A power point called, "Doodle Time."
• All of the previous lessons will be stapled inside of the book covers so that students may take their class projects home at the end of day six and share these with their family.
• Large Word SMACK map for game
• Two newly purchased, unused fly swatters

Materials: (size, type, & quantity per each student)

• one sheet of white, heavy 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock
• one sheet of white 8 1/2 x 11 typing paper
• felt tip inc markers (multiple colors)

Vocabulary:

1. Community - A social group of any size whose members live in a specific place and share a government, have a common culture and also share in a historic heritage.
2. Storytelling - To convey events through words, images and sounds.
3. Inheritance - Any attribute, idea, or possession passed from a family member or community member to another member of their family or community.
4. Genealogy - A successive generation of blood kinship.
5. Tradition - An inherited pattern of thought or action that is actively repeated within a family or larger community.
6. Symbols - Images that represent ideas, persons, places, or actions to more than one person inside of a given community. 
7. Celebration - A joyful occasion commemorating a special event.
8. Neighborhood - People who live near each other.
9. Role Model - Someone who is worthy of imitation.
10. Socialization - Behavior patterns of the surrounding culture.
11. Fractur - A decorative letter form from a 16th century typeface, often used by early German immigrants to craft family documents.
12. Doodle - A doodle is an unfocused drawing made by a person whose attention is otherwise occupied.

Health & Safety Concerns: There are no health and safety concerns for this lesson because the students are using supplies that they normally keep stored in their desk. Pencils, pens, crayons, sissors and white glue all come with ingrediant labels that describe these supplies as "safe." Our students are also older so we believe that most of them have been taught not to throw or abuse these supplies. We do however, watch them carefully to insure they are not using their art materials in a dangerous way. 

Things to Consider:

1. The teacher will select the topic of "Community" in order to teach older elementary students to observe important qualities about themselves, the people around them and the greater goals of their society.
2. The following lesson is the sixth lesson in a series designed teach young students about the concrete characteristics of their own community and the communities of others. This specific lesson is used to introduce a familiar subject, "doodling" to the students.
3. If a teacher is concerned with helping his students socially engage each other through drawing games, he then may choose to teach these principles in the following lessons.
4. Cross-Curricular Connections between Communications and the Arts are used in this particular lesson. Teachers should observe and plan to assess both of these subjects in terms of the lesson.
5. The game resources supplied here are used liberally by many people across the internet. These ideas are shared but the written instructions are copyrighted by their respective authors.
6. Teachers should gather all of the lessons conducted and completed by participating students and staple these together between a back and front cover to create a student "Scrap Book."
7. If there is a special needs student participating during this lesson, the teacher should make adaptations for his/her needs in advance so that the project will move along seemingly unaffected by other students present in the classroom.

Step-by-Step Activity:
    1.Teachers enter the room quietly and smile at students.
   2.The art teacher will quickly and quietly upload the power point "Doodle Time" to the smart board.
    3.The teacher will pull down the screen used to display power points to the classroom
    4.The teacher will stand at the front of the classroom and proceed to capture the attention of her classroom by whatever means the homeroom teacher uses to draw the attention of her own students. This could be a hand signal or a word of caution, the homeroom teacher will inform the art instructor of her preferred method prior to the beginning of the class.
   5.The teacher will introduce his or herself to the students with a big smile and a loud audible voice.
    6.The teacher will then geet the class.
    7.The teacher will then briefly review what the previous lessons were in the Community unit lesson
    8.The teacher will ask the students if they know the meanings of the vocabulary terms previously discussed.
    9.The teacher will introduce the power point and it's purpose
    10.The teacher will flip through the images and ask the students the following questions:

• What kinds of things are these children drawing?
• How do the patterns and symbols represent the community this young artist comes from?
• Think about the patterns and shapes you see here. What are the repeating shapes?
• Why do you think these students choose to repeat particular colors in their drawings?

    11.With the ending of the power point presentation, the screen is returned to it's proper storage place.

    12.The teacher hands to each student a "Scrap Book" containing all of their previously drawn pages.

    13.The teacher then instructs the students to remove their drawing pencils and colored pencils from their desks quietly and wait patiently for instructions.
    14.The teacher will then proceed to tell the students they may decorate the covers of their books with doodles representing the ideas covered during their community projects. The following shapes, patterns and colors should be included on the cover of their scrapbook:

• Use at minimum - three colors
• repeat at minimum - three patterns
• Include at minimum - three shapes inside each pattern
• Make some lines thick and some lines thin
• Include a drawing of yourself!

    15.The teacher will instruct the class to put away their drawing tools and remain quiet for the closing questions, if time permits the game of "SMACK" will be played.

• The teacher will hang the large sheet of butcher paper on the board so that all students might be able to reach every portion of the paper with an arm extended.
• The teacher will divide the students into two equal groups and line them up parallel to each other in front of the board. This is a relay race formation.
• Then each student at the front of the line will be supplied with a fly swatter. The teacher will read aloud the following questions and the first students with fly swatters will "smack" the word answer when they find it. As soon as they have done so they must then pass the fly swatter to the next student standing in line.
• The teacher will read aloud the second question and the next team will proceed to search for the answer and smack the correct vocabulary word.
• The game will progress thus until all of the vocabulary questions have been asked.
• The team with the most correct answers wins!
• The teacher will review the vocabulary for the unit lesson about Community by asking the following questions aloud of his/her students.
• What is a social group of people who live in a specific place, share a government and have a common culture? (community)
• This means to share information about words, images and sounds? (storytelling)
• What is a thing, tradition or culture passed down from a family member called? (inheritance)
• Remember when you drew your family tree? This was a picture showing your family connections. We call this a what? (genealogy)
• If you inherit a pattern of thought or action and it is repeated within your family over and over, what might we call this? (tradition)
• Illustrated images that represent ideas, people, places, or actions are called? (symbols)
• An unfocused drawing that rambles around a page is called a? (doodle)
• What is a decorative font from early 16th century Germany called? (fractur)
• The behavior patterns in our culture are called? (socialization)
• Some person who is worthy of imitating is called a? (role model)
• People who live near us live in our? (neighborhood)

   16.After settling the students down and instructing them to return to their seats, the teacher should ask them to wait patiently for their homeroom teacher to begin their next lesson.
    17.The teacher will quietly and quickly remove the "Smack" game from the board and leave the room.
Cleanup Time & Strategy:

1. Teacher will collect all students work and put on a shelf in the classroom.
2. Teacher will have all put materials in proper boxes.

Assessment: Through observation and class discussion at the beginning and end of each class period the teacher determines whether or not students comprehend the assignments. The teacher looks and listens to see if all students respond with affirmative expressions/language and completed assignments.

all articles and lesson plans are copyrighted 2011 by Grimm