Portrait in Words - Collage Work
| Grade | Work Samples |
|---|---|
| End of Stage 4 (end of Year 8) | |
| Grade A | Courtney |
| Grade C | Chris |
Description of activity
Students make a ‘non-traditional’ portrait of themselves by tearing or cutting up their personal signs and symbols and rearranging and reconstructing these pieces onto a new background. Students consider how the organisation of composition, shape, colour and scale can communicate aspects of their personality to an audience. Students link aspects of their personality to particular visual qualities in the work and keep a record of these for later critical analysis and peer assessment. The suggested duration of this assessment for learning activity is 2–3 lessons (80 minutes each).
Context
Students have explored how artists use signs, symbols and text to communicate meaning in artworks. Through an investigation of painting procedures and techniques, and experiments with text, students have developed a range of personal symbols and codes to represent themselves – their personalities, physical characteristics and interests. The purpose of this activity is for students to represent a portrait of themselves, developing a visual language by rearranging and reconstructing their personal signs and symbols to reveal more about themselves and their individual traits. Students then use this work to develop a painting focusing on composition, colour and paint techniques.
Areas for Assessment
Outcomes
A student:
4.1 uses a range of strategies to explore different artmaking conventions and procedures to make artworks
4.2 explores the function of and relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience
4.3 makes artworks that involve some understanding of the frames
4.4 recognises and uses aspects of the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts
4.5 investigates ways to develop meaning in their artworks
4.6 selects different materials and techniques to make artworks.
Criteria for assessing learning
(These criteria would normally be communicated to students with the activity.)
Students will be assessed on their:
- investigation of different material techniques and procedures to develop a portrait in words employing painting and collage techniques through the:
- use of a range of painting techniques such as wash, impasto, resist, sgraffito
- manipulation of text, shapes, colours and textures in a unified composition
- understanding of how the structural frame can be used to develop and arrange visual codes to communicate meaning through the:
- use of text, colour, shape, texture, scale, juxtaposition as symbols and visual codes
- arrangement of a composition which communicates personality traits and interests
- investigation of the conceptual framework to represent and communicate ideas about yourself to an audience through the:
- consideration of different symbols such as letters, numbers and words and how they may be interpreted by an audience
- experimentation with visual qualities such as composition, colour, scale and texture and how they communicate and represent ideas.