Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Pencils 
• Variety of skin toned crayons 
• Markers or crayons in a variety of colors 
• Mirrors 
• White paper 
• Oval templates for tracing
• Visual samples of Howard Finster’s portraits 

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Students will take turns describing their physical appearance (eye color and shape, skin color, hair color and style, face shape, etc.) to a partner. Encourage students to be specific.
• Students will then look at themselves in a mirror. Ask students what new details they can add to their descriptions.
• Allow students to share some of their favorite attributes about themselves.

 

Work Session

CREATING SELF-PORTRAITS

• Show students samples of portraiture art through time to see that it is consistently proportionate, and specifically for this lesson, they will look at Howard Finster’s portraits.
• Discuss portraits and self-portraits with students, explaining the difference.
• Ask students what similarities and differences they notice in the portraits. Help students identify proportions in portraits and the spatial and size relationships between the placement of eyes and nose, nose and mouth, etc. 
• Show students how to use their fingers as rulers to measure their faces (i.e. How long is their nose compared to their index finger? Students will use that form of measurement to recreate their nose on their paper).
• Show students a visual demonstrating the proper use of line, shape, and proportion to create a portrait. 
• Help students identify which basic shape makes their head (an oval instead of a circle) and which basic shapes can be used to create a nose, a mouth, eyes, etc.
• Provide students with white paper and an oval template to outline. 
• Students will trace the oval on their white paper. This will represent their head.
• Tell students to draw in the details of their faces; remind them of the things they identified in the opening activity.
• Provide students with crayons representing various shades of skin tones. 

 

INCORPORATING PERSONAL NARRATIVES

• • Tell students that they will add a background to their self-portraits. 
  • Explain that the background is what appears farthest away from the viewer. Show students a portrait with a background, such as the “Mona Lisa”.
  • Ask students to visualize a memory such as their first day of school, a favorite trip they’ve taken, etc. Ask them to think about what things they saw, how they felt, etc.
    • Demonstrate to students how to create a horizon line. Explain that what is below the horizon line is on the ground and what is above the horizon line is in the sky.
    • Students will use markers or crayons to draw in the background of their artwork with a scene from their memory. Encourage students to use the entire space on their paper.
  • Tell students that they will be writing about their memories. 
  • Show students images of Howard Finster’s artwork and direct students to notice how he incorporates writing into his art. 
  • Ask students to reflect on their memory identifying a sequence of events including a beginning, middle, and end. 
  • Provide students with paper and instruct them to write about their memory using complete sentences (as appropriate for grade level). 
    • Narratives should have a beginning, middle, and end.

 

Closing Reflection

• Students will reflect on their artwork using “two glows and a grow”. Students will identify two things in their artwork and writing that they are proud of and one thing that they would like to improve.
• Provide students an opportunity to share their artwork with the class and explain how their artwork tells the viewer about their narrative

Assessments

Formative

Teacher will assess student learning through observing students’ responses in class discussion and their progress on their self-portraits.

 

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can create a self-portrait using the Elements of Art.
• Students can visualize a memory by creating a background for their self-portrait.
• Students can write a personal narrative about a memory that has a beginning, middle, and end.

 

 

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: Students should create a portrait for a character in a story they are reading. Students should add a background that shows something that happened in the story. Remediation:  Students should be provided with a graphic organizer to help them write their narrative.  Allow students to orally tell their narrative.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Examples of portraiture Story writing graphic organizer Facial proportions visual “Howard Finster.” Artnet.Com, www.artnet.com/artists/howard-finster/3. Accessed 26 June 2023. Teacher Note: Folk Art at the High Museum of Art: The High is dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the first general museum in North America to have a full-time curator devoted to folk and self-taught art. The nucleus of the folk art collection is the T. Marshall Hahn Collection, donated in 1996, and Judith Alexander's gift of 130 works by Atlanta artist Nellie Mae Rowe. Other artists the High has collected in depth in this field include the Reverend Howard Finster, Bill Traylor, Thornton Dial, Ulysses Davis, Sam Doyle, William Hawkins, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, and Louis Monza. The collection of almost 800 objects also boasts superb examples by renowned artists from beyond the South, such as Henry Darger, Martín Ramírez, and Joseph Yoakum.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed and updated by: Debi West and Katy Betts

Revised and copyright:  May 2024 @ ArtsNOW