Creative Challenge 13
Title:
Imagining Age
Artform:
Visual Art: Portraiture
Challenge:
Create a portrait of an older person given just their first name and the lockdown object they have chosen.
Create a self-portrait with your own lockdown object.
We will arrange for you to meet the older person online and you can create portraits of each other!
Resources:
Any you have! Create a portrait using any materials. It could be a drawing, painting, collage or sculpture.
A standard biro pen, that you can find at home, is perfect for sketching. Try out a few sketches so that you get used to it.
Getting started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwcscJQGvQg&feature=emb_title
Choose one or more names from the list and draw a portrait of the imagined older person:
John - Took lots of photos of the beautiful trees and flowers he saw on his walks. Then he made them into a slide-show and added guitar music.
Emma - Had never used Zoom before lockdown but now uses it a lot to stay connected with all her friends and busy meetings. She has helped lots of people to talk about how they are feeling during lockdown.
Steve - Planted some sweet pea seeds at the start of lockdown. They grew into beautiful brightly coloured flowers, then he experimented with watercolour paint to create his own pictures.
Anne - Spent lots of time with her family who had come over from the USA and stayed with her for a long time in lockdown. She loved talking to her grandson about the blue flowers which are called forget-me-nots that they saw together. When they went back the family left blue flowers in every room for Anne to find. Anne wrote a poem about how she felt.
Chris - Went to a Zoom meeting in his Spiderman costume. He was bored with the online meetings everyday and wanted to wake people up!
Mike – Made a felt laptop cover with his overlocker.
Margaret - Made a very fat fish. It should have been a whale.
Edna – Has made friends and has organised a meeting with her neighbour over the fence at 3 every day.
Pearl – Has realised how important her friends and family are, who have been regularly in touch with her.
Ann – Her cat Smudge has been her companion and has helped her get through each day.
Judith – Her dogs have made her get up and get out. She has been reading a book which she doesn’t normally do.
Hannah – Has been to an auction and bought 22 jam jars. She is going to make stewed plums and keep them for the winter.
Anna - Has 2 hair clips that she has been using to keep her hair off her face and has rediscovered the art of writing letters. She has had cards from a lady who has been making her own cards with pictures she has been taking herself.
There will be more names added over the coming months.
Find out:
About the art form:
Portraits can show lots of things about a person. The person usually has their favourite objects around them or perhaps objects about their interests, work or family.
Portraits also show a lot about the artist who made it. Different artists might see the same person in different ways!
Have a think about:
Where are they?
What are they wearing?
What colour are their hair and eyes?
How are they feeling?
What do they enjoy doing?
What makes them unique?
Don’t worry too much about how it looks, let your imagination guide you!
Close your eyes and imagine how the person looks.
You could do a quick sketch on scrap paper to get started.
Relax and lots of ideas will come once you start doodling.
You can also look at some pictures of faces or the people around you to get started.
Now make a ‘Self-Portrait’. This is a portrait of yourself. Choose an object that can be with you in the artwork. Perhaps there is an object that reminds you of lockdown experiences.
You can do this from your imagination, from photos or look in a mirror!
Look for shapes and lines on your face and how you want to show yourself.
Things to think about:
How would you make yourself look older in your self-portrait?
How would you make someone look younger?
Top tips:
Artists usually spend lots of time experimenting and doodling so challenge yourself to draw without thinking too much. If you make a mistake, just draw over it and carry on!
Experiment and have fun seeing how many different marks you can make with a biro.
Can you make:
very light marks to work out your drawing
very dark marks for the shadows
wiggly, straight and criss-cross lines
tiny and huge dots
Have a look at other biro sketches on Instagram @debk_artist
Artist: Debbie Kersley
I paint and draw, inspired by people and things around me. I draw what I see on my daily walks through local fields and hiking in mountains. I draw the messy things in my house as if they are landscapes. I love seeing how objects get piled up until they almost tumble down!
Here is my self-portrait when I was 16 yrs old, now 49!
email: debk_artist@outlook.com
Instagram @debk_artist
https://www.livingfromart.co.uk/
Share:
Age UK Glos would love to share your portraits with the named older person.
When you have finished your portrait, then email: ageuklifechanges@ageukgloucestershire.org.uk. Add the title Imagining Age and tell us which name you chose.
Age UK will then get in touch with your adult to set up and host a private facilitated online video meeting, so you can meet the older person you chose and see how they really look! Please note, your adult/carer would need to be present during the meeting.
This is an opportunity to share what you created, what materials you used and what you have learnt about self-portraiture
Don’t worry if you prefer not to share online and we can explore alternative ways such as using the post.
Extra challenges:
When you meet the older person online, you can draw each other.
You can show the older person your self-portrait and see if they can guess your name.
Have a chat with the older person about their lockdown object and tell them all about yours – perhaps you could draw their story!
If you prefer not to use the list of names, you could think about an older person that you already know and ask them which object they choose.
Create a second self-portrait showing how you imagine yourself when you are older!
Imagine how the older person would have looked like when they were your age?
Other inspiration:
Have a look on the website of The Wilson Museum and Art Gallery in Cheltenham, Gloucester Museum, or the National Portrait Gallery in London. Search for artists such as Rembrandt, David Hockney, Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh and Matisse.
View the Instagram gallery #portraitsforhsheroes – a national project that links artists with NHS workers to paint their portrait.
National Portrait Gallery – view the award exhibition and vote
for your favourite: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/bp-portrait-award-2020/exhibition/exhibitors/
Look at a huge range of portraits on ArtUK: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/keyword:portraits/page/3
Watch Grayson Perry’s Art Club on TV – Episode 1 - Portraits
