Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you today? Hope you're feeling really good, and I'm so pleased that you're here.

My name is Ms. Afzal, and I'll be your art teacher for this lesson.

I'm feeling very pleased about that because I love teaching art and because today we're looking at facial expressions.

I think that should be something pretty interesting for us to get into.

Our lesson is called Investigate Facial Expressions in Portraits.

It comes from the unit of work, Photography and Painting: Facial expressions in portraiture.

So if you are ready to explore this, if you have some focus, energy, and enthusiasm, we'll begin our lesson now.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can identify and describe different facial expressions in portraits and their emotional impact.

We have some keywords in our lesson.

Let's go through them.

Portrait, feature, realistic, and exaggeration.

So what do these keywords mean? Portrait, this is a painting, drawing, or photograph of a person with an emphasis on the face, personality, and attributes of the sitter.

Feature, a part of the face like eyes, mouth, or nose.

Realistic, a representation of something that is accurate and true to life.

Exaggeration, a representation of something that is more extreme or dramatic than it usually is.

Pause here and share with someone.

Did you know of any of these keywords before? Had you just heard the word or did you know the meaning of the word? Thanks for sharing.

So these are our keywords, portrait, feature, realistic, and exaggeration.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today, so let's look out and listen out for them.

Our lesson is called Investigate Facial Expressions in Portraits, and it has two learning cycles, facial expressions in art, and emotions and facial expressions.

Let's begin by exploring facial expressions in art.

Let's start with a question.

How can artists show emotions and create feelings through portraiture? Pause here and share with someone what do you think.

Thanks for sharing.

We can see an artist drawing a portrait using a reference picture.

A portrait is an artwork that represents a person or group of people.

It often shows more than what someone looks like.

It can reveal their personality, identity, or emotions.

And we can see here a street art portrait of the artist, Frida Kahlo, who is herself an incredible portrait artist.

Portraits can be created in many ways, for example, through painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, or digital and mixed media.

Pause here and share with someone else.

Which kind of portraits have you seen before? Have you seen them as paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, or digital and mixed media? Thanks for sharing.

Facial expressions help communicate a person's emotions and personality, making a portrait more engaging and meaningful to the viewer.

And we can see someone viewing a portrait painting in a gallery.

Pause here and share with someone.

Have you seen some portrait paintings in a gallery before? Are there any that you remember in particular? Thanks for sharing.

My most memorable portrait paintings are those by Frida Kahlo who we saw an image of on the last scree and of Vincent van Gogh They were both incredible portrait painters.

What is the emotion being conveyed by these faces? Let's look at this one first of all.

Pause here and share with someone what emotion is being conveyed.

Thanks for sharing.

How about this one? What emotion is being conveyed? Thanks for sharing.

And this one, what emotion is being conveyed? Thanks for Sharing.

Let's take a look.

Eyes and eyebrows can reveal emotions like surprise, sadness, or anger.

The mouth can show smiles, frowns, or neutral expressions, helping us recognize how someone might be feeling.

And the combination of these features can also express more complex or mixed emotions.

Using this portrait, identify and describe with a partner, first of all, what emotion is being conveyed.

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Which facial features stand out? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

And how did light, shadow, and color help to express this emotion? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing.

Let's gather some responses.

Here's Izzy.

"I think the portrait is expressing sadness.

Their brow is furrowed, their eyes look their like they're filled with tears and their mouth is turning down." And Laura, "There's no color in the picture which highlights their facial expression and makes it look more dramatic.

Plus, there is a dramatic shadow on one side of the face." I wonder if you noticed some things like these.

Let's have a check for understanding.

What is a portrait? Is it A, a landscape painting, B, a type of abstract art, or C, a picture of a person or group of people? Pause here while you decide what is a portrait.

Well done if you selected answer C.

Indeed, a portrait is a picture of a person or group of people.

Artists can use several techniques to enhance the emotional impact of a portrait including light and shadow, color, composition.

Take a look at this portrait.

What is the effect of the use of light and shadow in this portrait? Pause here and share with someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

Light and shadow can be used to add drama and depth in a portrait to emphasize facial expressions or certain features.

In this case, the high contrast is revealing the eyes.

Take a look at these two portraits.

How does the use of color influence the portrait's mood? And does it change the emotion being shown? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

And how about in this example? How does the use of color influence the portrait's mood? And does it change the emotion being shown? Pause here and share with someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

Colors influence a portrait's mood and emotion.

For example, warm colors like red, orange in yellow can suggest energy or joy.

Cool colors like blues and grays can convey calmness or sadness.

Bold contrasting colors can heighten the drama.

Pause here and share with someone, what are you more drawn towards, the warmer colors, cooler colors, or bold contrasting colors? Thanks for sharing.

Artists can also choose which areas to focus their images on through their choice of composition.

In a portrait, the composition can draw attention towards certain features, the head and shoulders or whole person.

An example of a portrait with a dynamic composition can be seen in "Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, La Pittura" by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1638-9.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Mm and mm can be used to enhance expression in a portrait.

What are those two missing words? Is it A, brands and logos, Is it B, light and shadow? Or is it C, rulers and measurements? Pause here while you decide which are the two words missing from this sentence.

Well done if you selected answer B.

Indeed it should be light and shadow can be used to enhance the expression in a portrait.

And now it's time for your first task.

I would like you to draw the missing feature onto each facial expression to make the portrait appear, in the first case, more happy, in the second, more surprised, and in the third, more sad.

So pause here while you have a go at drawing on the missing feature onto each facial expression to heighten the emotion in a portrait.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finish.

It's great to be back with you.

You may have drawn something like this, a smiling mouth in the first portrait, raised eyebrows and wide eyes in the second, and sad downturned eyes in the third.

And now we're onto our next learning cycle, emotions and facial expressions.

The key features for changing a facial expression are the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth.

However, not all facial expressions show clear emotions.

They may be subtle or mixed, which can make them difficult to identify accurately.

And here we can see a photograph of a person with a subtle facial expression.

Pause here and turn to the person next to you and make a subtle facial expression.

Thanks for doing that.

Artists may also alter the appearance of a person to make them appear realistic or exaggerated.

A realistic representation accurately reflects the person.

Exaggeration can highlight an emotion or emphasize a mood.

Pause here and share with someone.

How has the emotion in this portrait been exaggerated on the right hand side? Thanks for sharing.

Everything's a lot brighter and sharper, it seems to me.

The painting "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci, 1503 to 1519, is famous for the facial expression which uses the features of a slight smile and neutral eyes.

This realistic portrait creates a subtle expression and is open to different interpretations.

A realistic portrait represents the person in an accurate way.

An exaggerated portrait makes them seem more extreme or dramatic.

The facial expression in the "Scream" by Edvard Munch, 1893, is much more exaggerated and immediate with a wide mouth and raised eyebrows.

This means the emotion of fear or anxiety becomes easier to identify.

Let's have a check for understanding.

which of these facial features is most important for showing emotion.

Is it A, the eyebrows, B, hair, or C, the chin? Pause here while you decide which of these facial features is most important for showing emotion.

Well done if you selected answer A.

Indeed, it's the eyebrows that are most important for showing emotion.

Using a mirror can be helpful for creating portraits as it helps artists see real facial expressions, shows how light reflects on the face, helps to practice sketching the positions of each feature.

Let's have a go at I do, you do.

So first of all, I do.

Using a mirror for reference, I'm gonna draw eyebrows that express excitement.

I'll take one minute to do that.

Here's what I've created in one minute, and now it's your turn.

I'd like you to use a mirror for reference.

Draw eyebrows that express excitement.

Pause here while you do this.

You have one minute.

Good to be back with you.

How did you get on? Here's Sam.

"I tried to raise the eyebrows in the sketch to show excitement." And now another I do, you do.

This time I will use am mirror for reference and draw a mouth That looks surprised.

Now take a minute to do it.

Here's my outcome.

And that's your turn.

Using a mirror for reference, draw a mouth that looks surprised.

You have one minute to do this.

Pause here and have a go.

How did you get on? Here's Jacob.

"In my sketch, I opened the mouth up really wide to express the emotion of surprise." And now I will use a mirror for reference and draw eyes that look happy.

I'll take one minute.

This is what I came up with, and now it's your turn.

You do.

Use A mirror for reference.

Draw eyes that look happy.

You have one minute.

Pause here and have a go at this.

Well done for trying that.

How did you get on? Here's Laura? "The eyes have wrinkles at the edges to try to look like they're smiling.

They're also narrower than usual." Let's have a check for understanding.

Why is using a mirror helpful when sketching facial features, expressions, and emotions? Is it A, it shows how light reflects on the face, B, it helps artists see real facial expressions, C, it adds color to the sketch.

Pause here while you decide.

Why is using a mirror helpful when sketching facial features, expressions, and emotions.

Well done if you selected the first two answers.

Indeed, it shows how light reflects on the face and it helps artists see real facial expressions.

And now it's time for your next task.

I would like you to choose an emotion to portray, for example, happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, using a mirror or photograph, observe your own facial expression.

Sketch your self-portrait of your face with the chosen emotion.

Consider which facial features to exaggerate or details to enhance the emotion in the portrait.

Remember to sketch lightly so that you can correct your drawing.

Pause here while you have a go at this task of choosing an emotion to portray through a self portrait.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished.

It is great to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task? You may have drawn a self-portrait like this.

In this example, the emotion of happiness was observed as a facial expression, then drawn with a smile and relaxed eyes.

I love those, and pretty groovy specs too.

Pause here and share with someone your impressions of this portrait.

What do you like about it? How do you feel the emotion is being expressed? Thanks for sharing.

And now I would like you to show your self-portrait to someone and see if they can work out what is the emotion that you are trying to express.

Pause here while you do this.

And now check to see if they got the correct emotion.

And now see if they can work out how is it that you achieved this expression of emotion? See if they can work out which facial features you enhanced or exaggerated to express your chosen emotion.

Thanks for sharing with each other.

In our lesson, Investigate Facial Expressions in Portraits, we've covered the following.

Facial expressions are used in portrait art to convey emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise.

Facial features like the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth can appear realistic or exaggerated to highlight certain emotions.

Light, shadow, color, and composition can all be used to further emphasize the mood of a portrait artwork.

Well done, everyone, for joining in with this lesson.

It was great to ex explore and investigate facial expressions together in portraits to work out how it is that we achieve certain expressions through enhancing, exaggerating certain features, and of course bringing in light and shadow as well.

Perhaps you can keep your eyes out for portraits all around you as you go through the next few days and notice what expressions do these people in the portraits have and how has that been achieved.

Emotion detectives.

I've really enjoyed teaching you.

I hope you've enjoyed this lesson too, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you at another art lesson soon.

Until then, stay creative.