Portraiture is a very old artform, used for thousands of years to make artworks that represent people.

Complete the following activities, recording your answers in a document to share with your teacher.

• What is a 'portrait'? Is it just a picture of a person's face, or is there more to it? Think about where you would draw the line. Answer the next 4 questions in your own words to explain your ideas about what portraiture is.

  • Is a portrait just a literal image of a person, or can portraits contain more information than that?

  • Does a portrait have to show a person's face? What if it only shows part of a face? What if the face is covered? What if the face isn't shown at all?

  • Can a photograph be a portrait? What about a sculpture? What about a video?

  • Does a portrait have to represent a real person? What about a fictional or mythological person? What about an animal?

• Search online for definitions of 'portraits' as an artform. Are there some similarities and differences in the definitions you found? Write your own definition for what you think a portrait is, based on your own understanding and the definitions you found.

• Find an example of a portrait you like by an Australian artist, using one of these three sources:

  • Archibald Prize | Art Gallery of NSW, date accessed 16/08/2021.

  • Portrait | Moran Prizes, date accessed 16/08/2021.

  • The Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, date accessed 16/08/2021.

Write a short paragraph that explains why you chose this portrait, answering the following questions:

• Who is the artist, and who is the sitter (the person shown in the portrait)?

• Why do you like this portrait? What made you choose this one?

• What do you think makes this a good example of a portrait?

If you're already a confident drawer or want to extend or challenge yourself, use one or more of the resources listed below to further develop your drawing practice and understanding of facial proportions.

Artists often make simple line drawings as observational exercises, or as sketches to plan more complex or detailed compositions for drawings and paintings. In the two examples below by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari, simple outlines are used to represent the face and facial features. There is almost no shading - darker areas and textures like the hair in both portraits is shown using repeated shapes and overlapping lines.

In this activity you will make another three drawings, this time focusing on using strong, simple lines to represent the face. You might choose to work from a photograph, from a mirror, or have someone sit for you. Think carefully about each line - try not to use your eraser this time. For each drawing, follow the rules below to limit and challenge yourself.

1. Draw for 2 minutes. Use some measurement lines to mark out the location of the eyes, nose and mouth as demonstrated in the Ben Quilty video. Do your best to draw the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and hair using simple shapes and repeated lines. Add a couple of wrinkles or other lines to give the face more detail.

2. Draw for 3 minutes. This time, you must use one continuous line, without taking your pencil off the page. This type of drawing is usually called a 'continuous contour' drawing, and challenges artists to think very carefully about the kind of marks they make to represent their subject.

Check out these examples of continuous contour artworks:

• Line without end – Drawing a Line (wordpress.com), date accessed 16/08/2021.

• Alexander Calder. Portrait of a Man. New York, c. 1928 | MoMA, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• Allison Kunath - Blind contour portraits, date accessed 16/08/2021.

3. Draw for 5 minutes. This time, use a pen - this means you cannot erase or modify your lines. Again, think carefully about how to represent each feature of the face.

Keep your completed drawings in your visual arts diary. Take a photograph of each of your drawings and save these in a document to share with your teacher.

Choose one of the sculptures from the list below, and complete the activities.

'David' (bust), by Michelangelo, date accessed 16/08/2021.

'Venus Italica' (bust), by Antonio Canova, date accessed 16/08/2021.

'Nefertiti', by Thutmose, date accessed 16/08/2021.

Mary (bust) from 'Pietà', by Michelangelo, date accessed 16/08/2021.

'Apollo Belvedere' (bust), Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, attributed to Leochares, date accessed 16/08/2021.

Julius Caesar (The Green Caesar), Roman sculpture, unknown artist, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• Write a short description of the sculpture. How has the artist chosen to represent their subject? What can you tell about them just by looking at their face?

• Find out some background information about the sculpture. Who is the subject represented? Are they a real person or a religious or mythological figure? When was the sculpture made? Who was the intended audience?

• How is a representation of a historical, religious, or mythological figure different to a representation of a real person? Can we still think of these as portraits?

Include an image of the sculpture, and record your answers in a document to share with your teacher.

In this activity you will practice drawing from ancient and renaissance sculptures, using the list of 3D models below. Some of the sculptures shown are 'busts' taken from larger sculptures. A bust is a sculpture that focuses on the head, and sometimes including the shoulders and chest.

Choose from the list of sculptures below for your 3 drawings. You might draw the same sculpture from 3 different perspectives, or use different sculptures for your 3 perspective drawings.

• 'David' (bust), by Michelangelo, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• 'Venus Italica' (bust), by Antonio Canova, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• 'Nefertiti', by Thutmose, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• Mary (bust) from 'Pietà', by Michelangelo, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• 'Apollo Belvedere' (bust), Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, attributed to Leochares, date accessed 16/08/2021.

• Julius Caesar (The Green Caesar), Roman sculpture, unknown artist, date accessed 16/08/2021.

Tips for viewing the 3D models

• To view the model in 3D, click on the '3D' button at the bottom left of the window. Click on the fullscreen icon to expand the image.

• Click and drag with the left mouse button to rotate the 3D model to view it from the front, side, and 3/4 perspectives.

• Click and drag with the right mouse button to move the 3D model up, down, left or right.

• You could also download the 3D image and open it in a different program, like Paint 3D.

Tips for drawing

• Spend at least 10 minutes on each drawing.

• Start by drawing some light construction lines - you can erase these later.

• Draw an oval or ellipse to show the rough outline of the face, then mark where you will place the major facial features - eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows.

• Check that your facial features are in proportion. Are they in the right place and the right size? You might need to erase or move some features.

• Continue to add details to your drawing. Draw what you can see! Use different pencil marks where necessary, for example:

  • heavy, solid lines to outline the shape of the eyes, lips and ears

  • short, repeated lines to show the eyebrows

  • light, softer lines to show and wrinkles or folds in the skin

  • rendering - using shading, hatching or stippling to show areas of light and shadow based on the lighting on the 3D model.

• Use your eraser to correct any mistakes, or to lighten areas of shading.

Keep your finished drawings in you visual arts diary. Make sure you write down which sculpture your drawing is from.

Take a photograph of each of your drawings and save these in a document to share with your teacher.

In this activity, you will create a digital portrait using Photoshop or a similar editor like Pixlr or Photopea (date accessed 16/08/2021) that allows you to work on multiple layers. Photoshop is available for free to NSW public school students via OnTheHub (date accessed 16/08/2021).

You might choose to use the steps outlined in this activity to complete some of the artmaking activities in the other lessons in this module.

You will need a reference photograph to work from. Make sure you start with a large image file (at least 1000 pixels tall).

Follow the steps below to create your digital drawing.

• Launch Photoshop and create a new blank document. Use a preset like the A4 page to make sure you have a high resolution document to work in. Make sure your blank document matches the portrait or landscape orientation of your reference photograph.

• Go to 'File' and then 'Place Embedded', and select your reference photograph to import it into your document.

• Create a new layer by going to the 'Layer' menu and select 'New' and then 'Layer', or by using the keyboard shortcut 'Ctrl+Shift+N'. Rename your layer to 'line' to keep things organised.

• Select the brush tool by using the keyboard shortcut 'B'. Right click on the image to open the brush options. Change the size of the brush to a small value (around 5 pixels), and set the hardness to 100%. Set the colour to black, or another dark colour.

• Make sure you have the 'line' layer selected in the layers window. Use the brush tool to trace over the outlines, facial features, and main details in your photograph. When you are drawing, this list of keyboard shortcuts might be helpful.

  • If you make a mistake, undo your last step using Ctrl+Z, or press E to select the eraser tool.

  • Make your brush bigger or smaller using the [ and ] keys.

  • Zoom in by holding Ctrl and pressing +. Zoom out by holding Ctrl and pressing -.

  • Check your progress by hiding the layer with your photograph by clicking on the eye-shaped show/hide icon in the layers window.

  • Save your work with Ctrl+S. Save often to avoid losing work.

• When you are finished outlining, create a plain background layer. Go to the 'Layer' menu and select 'New Fill Layer' and then 'Solid Colour'. Set the colour to white or another light colour. In the layers window, click and drag the fill layer below the line layer.

• You might then choose to add colour to your portrait. Create a new layer and call it 'colour'. In the layers window, click and drag the colour layer below the line layer.

Use the 'Colour' or 'Swatches' windows to select the colours you will use, and use the brush tool to apply colour throughout your image. You might experiment with different brush options by right clicking on your image to bring up the brush tool options, and selecting your brush shape, size and hardness.

Think about what colours you could use to represent the emotion shown in your photograph.

• When you are finished, go to the 'File' menu and select 'Save As'. Rename your file and save as a .jpg to share with your teacher.