Teaching portraiture starts with a lesson in proportions.
Drawing and painting portraits is one of the most important skills for an artist to develop. Understanding the proportions, elements and composition involved with creating a portrait will help a student to become more adept at drawing and painting not only people, but any other subjects as well. Portrait drawing is great practice for young students in particular, as the subject is something recognizable to them, and they will be able to enjoy the task of drawing themselves, their friends and their families.
Facial Proportions
The first step toward teaching students portraiture is explaining the proportions of the face. For elementary school students, describe the head as egg-shaped, with the eyes falling half way between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. The eyes themselves are separated by the width of one eye. The nose begins between the eyes and extends halfway between the eyes and the chin. It is as wide at the nostrils as the inside of the eyes. The mouth lies halfway between the bottom of the nose and chin, and is as wide as the center of the eyes. The ears generally start at the top of the eye and end at the bottom of the nose.
Explain these basic proportions the students and have them look into a mirror to see this for themselves. Prompt them to notice the slight differences in their own face from these basic proportions.
Self-Portraits
Self-portraits are a staple assignment in virtually every drawing, painting or sculpture class at any level. Self-portraits are valuable because the subject matter is extremely familiar to the student and readily available. A series of self-portraits done over a fixed period of time is an excellent way to track an artist's development. All that is needed for a self-portrait assignment is a mirror and the appropriate drawing materials.
Have each student set a small mirror on the desk. Give them pencils and paper, and have them attempt to draw a contour picture of their own faces using the basic proportions you have explained to them. A contour picture is a picture created using only lines, without any shading. Once students master the elements of facial proportions, instruct them on shading in the areas of dark and light value on the contour drawing. Encourage them to spend as much time as possible observing their faces in the mirror.
Drawing Classmates
Pair each student with another and have them repeat the process using another student as a model instead of looking into the mirror. This will help students see the similarities in the facial proportions. Keep pairing the students together until each student has drawn a self-portrait and at least three other students in the class. This will teach the students the subtle differences in the shapes and proportions of people's faces.
Drawing a Family Member
Assign a final project of drawing a family member. Instruct the student to spend more time on this drawing than the others, and make the picture look as realistic as possible. This will allow the student to practice a more involved art piece, while creating a meaningful image that she may want to frame and hang in her home.
