How do artists tell a story of human narrative through figurative portraiture?

The Art Challenge:
Create a figurative composition that depicts a figure or figures in a setting that reveals a narrative about that figure or figures.

Materials
  • 16 x 20" Watercolor paper
  • Pencils
  • Eraser
  • pen / ink / markers / colored pencils / gel pens
  • Watercolor paint

Process Help:
  1. Take a photo of yourself or a person or people you know, or use this public domain photography website.  Try not to have your subject(s) look at the camera.
  2. Print out your photograph or submit it to Schoology for Manders to print.  Draw it on your composition paper.
  3. Change and add to the drawing elements that would resolve your intended narrative.  Keep compositional balance and good design principles in mind.  The setting of the drawing composition should make sense to the viewer.
  4. Finish the composition with ink, watercolor paint, and white gel pen or colored pencil.

Hope Gangloff

Sketchbook Investigation - Part 1 (Formative Score = 2)
  1. Click on Hope Gangloff's website button.  Explore her site from "Ancient" to "Drawings" and "Paintings".  Investigate where she started with drawing and how she developed her style in drawing and painting.
  2. Click on the "About Hope Gangloff" button.  Read about her early life background, education, and career.
  3. In your sketchbook, complete the following prompts:
    1. Reflect on this artist's work.  What are your opinions of the work?  How does she portray the figure?
    2. Choose 2 different Gangloff drawings or paintings.  Sketch/Draw them in your sketchbook as small study drawings.  4x6 inches.  Try your best to keep the proportions the same. Notice how this artist develops composition and organization of formal elements of art.
Sketchbook Project Plan - Part 2 (Formative Score = 3)
  1. In your sketchbook, plan out what you'd like to do for your original figurative composition as inspired by Hope Gangloff.
  2. Take 2-3 photographs of figures posing or interacting in some way.  Be sure they are cropped and composed in a visually engaging and balanced way. 
  3. Create 1-2 small sketches of your photo to plan out the balance of your final composition.  Consider background and other elements to accompany the figures.
Picture
Hope Gangloff - Study of Olga Alexandrovskaya

Kathe Kollwitz

Sketchbook Investigation - Part 1 (Formative Score = 2)
Read through the following Kathe Kollwitz Bio & History.  Answer the following in your sketchbook about the reading:
Before You Read:
Put yourself in Ukraine right now, or in Prussia during World War I (~1914).  Describe in a few words what life would be like.  What is one thing you think you might learn about Kathe Kollwitz from this informational site?
While You Read:
Where did Kathe Kollwitz get her drawing inspiration?  How does her artwork represent personal expression?  What kinds of battles did she face and how did she overcome them?  Did she ever overcome them?
After You Read:
How does your life experience differ from Kathe's?  How is it similar?  Describe in a few words what your life is like now?  How could your experiences shape the way you make art?  
Sketchbook Project Plan - Part 2 (Formative Score = 3)
  1. In your sketchbook, plan out what you'd like to do for your original figurative composition as inspired by Kathe Kollwitz.  
  2. Take 2-3 photographs of figures posing or interacting in some way.  Be sure they are cropped and composed in a visually engaging and balanced way. 
  3. Create 1-2 small sketches of your photo to plan out the balance of your final composition.  Consider background and other elements to accompany the figures.
Sketchbook Investigation - Part 3 (Formative Score = 4)
Follow along with Manders demonstration on gesture drawing.
Draw a minimum of 10 poses from the following video:

Abdi Farrah

High School Student Compositions