Bryn Celynnog - Year 8

For the two year 8 groups I had the scheme of work was Portraiture, and I could pretty much come up with the project by myself and my mentor's help. Before I started in this school these classes had been given a homework on Picasso's 'Weeping Woman' painting, so it felt natural that I would create a project that would link well to this.

Learners would be creating a very similar portrait to the 'Weeping Woman'.

Learners were given an A3 piece of paper each that they would have to grid up, much like in Picasso's painting. The less able learners drew less grids where as the more able drew more grids to make more of a challenge for themselves. Once the grids were drawn learners would then fill them in using different materials. Learners were broken up into five groups of four, in these groups they would move around the room to different tables that had different materials on them, as a bit of a circuit. On one table there was acrylic paints, on the other there was newspaper, on another there was oil pastels, and on the other table was a variety of collage materials. Learners would spend ten minutes at each station to fill in their grids.

Learners had to stick to one colour theme, either hot or cold colours. The choice was theirs.

 

Once learners had completed all of their grids they were then going to draw on a split portrait of themselves, half of the face would be drawn front on, whilst the other half would be a profile view. They practised these faces in their books first so they would not ruin these lovely prepped sheets they had been working on.

 

 

These faces were drawn onto the grid sheets as a class, I would go through it step by step on the board and then the learners would follow. Again so learners would not go wrong on their final sheets.

 

 

The next step was then to go back into their grids and define the area's so that their portraits would stand out, this was actually easier to do if you had more grids on your sheet.

 

 

At the end of the project all learners laid their final pieces of work on the floor and we had a group critique. This was a good opportunity for all learners to see each others work and give feedback.

 

I really enjoyed this project as it allowed me to 'inject' some Art history into the lessons as well. Learners could see the link between their work and Picasso's.

 

The struggles in this project came from some learners not sticking to the colour theme they had chosen, drawing on their portraits on their sheets to small, and not taking care in filling in their grids.