RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS

A portrait is generally defined as a representation of a specific individual person. A portrait does not merely record someone’s features, however, but also depicts something about who the subject is or was, offering a vivid sense of a real person’s presence.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, portrait painting had great significance as a means to promote one’s self, as well as to capture one’s likeness for future generations to view and admire.

Kings and queens and other noble figures had their portraits painted to portray his or her wealth and power by being depicted wearing their finest clothes and jewels. A knight or warrior would have himself painted with weapons and armor to represent his strength and success in battle.

Other portraits might suggest the subject’s profession or interests by including possessions and attributes that characterize him or her as, for example, a scholar, an impassioned preacher, or a sculptor. In addition to recording appearances, portraits served a variety of social and practical functions in Renaissance Europe. Miniature portraits were given as gifts of intimate remembrance, while portraits of rulers asserted their majesty in places from which they were absent.

A portrait was often commissioned at a significant moment in someone’s life, such as betrothal, marriage, or elevation to an office. In modern times, we often take a photograph (or many!) at times like these, but the camera came along long after the Renaissance.

OUR PROJECT:

For our Renaissance-inspired self portraits, you may depict yourself as a knight, king, queen, scholar, etc. Consider the clothing and accessories that people wore during that time period. Also, research Renaissance portraits online or in one of the art history books in class and study the poses and facial expressions.

PLEASE BE PREPARED TO HAVE YOUR PHOTO TAKEN IN CLASS AFTER WINTER BREAK!

You do not need special clothes, but you must know how you want to pose and please research how you would like to draw your clothes and any accessories.

Please have your ideas ready to show me at the beginning of class either sketched out or written in a notebook OR you may save inspiration images from the Internet in your Google Drive in your Specials folder.

Consider these ideas:

• crowns, scepters, a throne (to show royalty)
• hats or fancy hairstyles with braids or curls
• jewelry (necklaces, earrings, rings, pearls, gems, gold to show wealth)
• weapons (sword, shield, armor, dagger, ax to show strength)
• books (to show intelligence)
• pets (unicorns, dogs, ferrets)

Google searches for inspiration:

• Renaissance portrait
• Renaissance dress
• Armor
• Medieval portrait
• Medieval clothes

Once you have researched, we will take a photo of each student in class as you pose in a Renaissance style. I will print the photos out and we will trace our faces and bodies. Next we will transfer the tracing to art canvases.

Once our face and body have been transferred, you will draw your Renaissance outfit and any accessories you would like to include.

After our canvases are completely planned out, we will begin painting with acrylic paint, working section by section, and finishing with our skin and hair.

The final step will be to use paint pens to outline our paintings and tidy up any messy edges.

Our next project will be portraits of our pets!

Next week, everyone must bring in 1 to 3 photos of a favorite pet (dog, cat, lizard, bird, etc.). If you do not have a printed photo, you may email 1 to 3 photos from your computer or smart phone to Mrs. DiCarlo at gdicarlo@sfschools.net

If you do not have a pet, then get creative and find a photo of an imaginary pet!

We will print our pet photos in black and white and trace the shape of our pet to transfer to a canvas.

Next we will divide out pet into geometric shapes and paint them different bright colors.

Once our entire canvas has been painted, we will use paint pens to draw creative patterns in the various shapes.

Finally, we will outline our pet with a black paint pen so that our painting "pops" and our edges are cleaned up.

To begin the school year, students will make abstract collages to get the creative juices flowing. No need to worry about how well you can draw because all the shapes and colors you need are right there in the magazines (dozens and dozens of parent-donated National Geographics).

The catch: do not cut out any "things," but rather, find colors, patterns, and textures and cut them into various shapes to construct an interesting collage.

Students should consider the entire composition and take time to move shapes around and make adjustments before glueing pieces to the paper. You may leave white space on your composition. In fact, pay special attention to the white space and use it to enhance your composition!

ASSIGNMENT:

Make THREE collages for THREE of the color combinations listed below...

1. COLOR WHEEL - in the correct order.
2. WARM COLORS - reds, oranges, yellows (think... FIRE!)
3. COOL COLORS - greens, blues, purples (think... WATER!)
4. PRIMARY COLORS - reds, yellows, blues.
5. SECONDARY COLORS - oranges, greens, purples.
6. COMPLEMENTARY COLORS - 2 colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel, like red + green; see the chart below for more options.
7. SPLIT-COMPLEMENTARY COLORS - 3 colors, see the chart below.
8. ANALOGOUS COLORS - 2 to 4 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, see the chart below.

PROJECT: DRAWING ANIMALS

Check out this website with tons of animal drawing tutorials - How2DrawAnimals.com

RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS

A portrait is generally defined as a representation of a specific individual person. A portrait does not merely record someone’s features, however, but also depicts something about who the subject is or was, offering a vivid sense of a real person’s presence.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, portrait painting had great significance as a means to promote one’s self, as well as to capture one’s likeness for future generations to view and admire.

Kings and queens and other noble figures had their portraits painted to portray his or her wealth and power by being depicted wearing their finest clothes and jewels. A knight or warrior would have himself painted with weapons and armor to represent his strength and success in battle.

Other portraits might suggest the subject’s profession or interests by including possessions and attributes that characterize him or her as, for example, a scholar, an impassioned preacher, or a sculptor. In addition to recording appearances, portraits served a variety of social and practical functions in Renaissance Europe. Miniature portraits were given as gifts of intimate remembrance, while portraits of rulers asserted their majesty in places from which they were absent.

A portrait was often commissioned at a significant moment in someone’s life, such as betrothal, marriage, or elevation to an office. In modern times, we often take a photograph (or many!) at times like these, but the camera came along long after the Renaissance.

OUR PROJECT:

For our Renaissance-inspired self portraits, you may depict yourself as a knight, king, queen, scholar, etc. Consider the clothing and accessories that people wore during that time period. Also, research Renaissance portraits online or in one of the art history books in class and study the poses and facial expressions.

PLEASE BE PREPARED TO HAVE YOUR PHOTO TAKEN IN CLASS AFTER WINTER BREAK!

You do not need special clothes, but you must know how you want to pose and please research how you would like to draw your clothes and any accessories.

Please have your ideas ready to show me at the beginning of class either sketched out or written in a notebook OR you may save inspiration images from the Internet in your Google Drive in your Specials folder.

Consider these ideas:

• crowns, scepters, a throne (to show royalty)
• hats or fancy hairstyles with braids or curls
• jewelry (necklaces, earrings, rings, pearls, gems, gold to show wealth)
• weapons (sword, shield, armor, dagger, ax to show strength)
• books (to show intelligence)
• pets (unicorns, dogs, ferrets)

Google searches for inspiration:

• Renaissance portrait
• Renaissance dress
• Armor
• Medieval portrait
• Medieval clothes

Once you have researched, we will take a photo of each student in class as you pose in a Renaissance style. I will print the photos out and we will trace our faces and bodies. Next we will transfer the tracing to art canvases.

Once our face and body have been transferred, you will draw your Renaissance outfit and any accessories you would like to include.

After our canvases are completely planned out, we will begin painting with acrylic paint, working section by section, and finishing with our skin and hair.

The final step will be to use paint pens to outline our paintings and tidy up any messy edges.

THE ASSIGNMENT:

Oaxaca is one of the 32 states of the country of Mexico and it has a rich history of making art! One traditional form of art in Oaxaca is to create wood carvings of animals and paint them with bright colors and imaginative patterns. For our first 6th grade painting project, we will take inspiration from these beautiful Mexican sculptures and create unique animal paintings of our own on real canvases with acrylic paints (the kind some professional artists use). Here are some examples of Oaxacan painted sculptures:

To begin OUR project, follow these steps...

Step 1: On your laptops, do a Google image search for "Oaxacan Animals." Scroll through the images and pay attention to the COLORS and PATTERNS you see.

Step 2: Next, do a Google image search for an animal you would like to use in your painting (fox, frog, zebra, etc.). Once you find an image of an animal you like, save it to your desktop, and then email it to me at gdicarlo@sfschools.net so I can print it out for you before next class.

Step 3: Take your animal printout and TRACE the basic shapes and outline of your animal with charcoal pencil.

Step 4: I will help you place your traced printout on your canvas so you can transfer the image to your canvas.

Step 5: Outline the charcoal animal on your canvas with black SHARPIE MARKER.

Step 6: Get out your sketchbook and place the canvas behind one of the clean pages so you can trace the animal into your sketchbook.

Step 7: Once you have traced your animal into your sketchbook, use COLORED PENCILS to lay out your colors and patterns on the traced animal. A few tips...

• Don't choose too many colors! Maybe limit yourself to 4 to get yourself started.
• Everyone will use just ONE color for his or her background color (so that the patterns on your animal can really pop off the canvas).
• Use your laptops and look up "Oaxacan Animals" again to get inspiration for your patterns.
• Think about classic patterns too: stripes, dots, squares, checkerboard, chevrons, squiggles, etc.

Step 8: Once I have approved your practice animal in your sketchbook, we will begin PAINTING our one-color backgrounds!

Step 9: Paint the animal's body whichever background color we have decided on, and then we will paint your patterns on top. Try to work light (like yellow) to dark (like navy blue).

Step 10: We will add a few extra details of pattern with PAINT PENS, and then we will finish by going back over the black outlines of our animal with black paint pens to make them really stand out.