Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about photography and painting, and looking at facial expressions in portraiture.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create a painting that expresses emotions by using different facial features.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are: proportion, hue, colour mixing, skin tone.

I'm going to say those again, and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Proportion, hue, colour mixing, skin tone.

Good job.

Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Let's take a look at each of their definitions.

Proportion is how big or small parts of something are compared to each other.

Hue is a particular shade or tint of a colour.

Colour mixing is adding two or more colours together to create a mixed colour.

Skin tone is the colour of a person's skin.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press Play.

These are the learning cycles that'll be working through together in today's lesson: Sketching an expressive face.

Painting an expressive face.

In the first learning cycle, we're going to explore, "Sketching an expressive face." Facial expressions are a powerful way to communicate emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise.

Artists use them to tell stories without words.

Take a look there, that acrylic painting of a man smiling.

Look at how the artist has communicated that emotion.

As well as the facial expression and features, there are other elements that can convey emotions in an artwork including tone, colour choice, and composition and background.

Look closely at these faces.

How can you tell if they are happy, sad, or surprised? Hmm, pause the video here and discuss with a partner what you notice about the artwork.

How does it convey a specific emotion? And press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, Andeep says, "The facial expressions change to show their emotions.

So the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth, they change shape and position." So looking at those two portraits there.

And Sam says, "As well as the facial features, the colours used in the sad painting are darker, and this creates a moody atmosphere." Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Facial expressions are a powerful way to communicate colours, emotions, or materials? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to answer this question, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

If you said that "Facial expressions are a powerful way to communicate emotions," you are absolutely right.

And examples could be happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise.

Now, sketching an expressive face is best achieved by using a reference picture or using a mirror to draw from.

Take a picture of yourself or someone else showing an emotion through their facial expression that you can use as a reference.

Pause the video here and do that now, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Now, begin your sketch by drawing an oval for the head and adding guidelines for the proportions, like this here.

Make sure you have a vertical line that divides the face into two halves, and have horizontal lines to mark where the eyes, nose, and mouth go.

Now these general proportions can help when drawing the facial features in the correct place.

So the eyes are halfway between the top of the head and the chin.

The base of the nose is halfway between the eyes and the chin.

and the mouth is halfway between the nose and the chin.

Take a moment here to pause.

Why is proportion important in sketching facial expressions? It adds colour, it ensures realism, it simplifies the process? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said "It ensures realism," you are absolutely right, well done.

Now, using these lightly drawn guidelines, you can draw the eyes on the midway horizontal line.

Can you see where it's purple there and where the eyes have been drawn? And then using that centre vertical line, draw the nose.

Can you see where the purple is highlighted there? And also the mouth.

Draw that under the nose, centred between the eyes.

Can you see how the purple lines there, helping to guide you? Have a go at drawing those.

Now, remember that proportions are useful as a basic guide, but everyone's face is unique, and so their facial features and proportions might be different.

Most faces are not perfectly asymmetrical.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Is this statement true or false? "Face proportions are the same for everyone." Pause the video here, give yourself a moment to answer this question.

Is the statement true or false? And press Play when you are ready to continue.

If you said that this statement is false, you are right.

But why is it false? Why are face proportions not the same for everyone? Pause the video here, give yourself a moment to think about this, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that "Everyone's face is unique and their features will have different qualities and proportions, so it is important to closely observe a person when drawing their portrait," that's absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to sketch a simple portrait from a reference picture showing a specific emotion.

Focus on the key features, eyes, nose, mouth, and brow, and ensure proportions are accurate.

So pause the video here.

Give yourself enough time to have a go at that task, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So you may have sketched a portrait with facial features in proportion, a bit like this one here, and shown a chosen emotion through focusing on the facial expressions and positions of the features.

You might have shown a relaxed, happy emotion through a smiling mouth, like this portrait here.

Well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson where we are going to explore painting an expressive face.

A hue is a particular shade or tint of a colour.

Colour mixing is the process of adding two or more colours together to create a particular colour or hue.

For instance, we can have blue and red, and they create purple.

Or we could have yellow and orange, and they create a yellow-orange.

There are many different colours, tones, and hues in a portrait.

To paint a realistic and expressive portrait, it is important to be able to use colour mixing to build a range of skin tones.

To create a base skin tone, we will need to mix together different amounts of the three primary colours, red, yellow, and blue.

So when they're mixed together, we're creating this brown colour.

Now, the amounts of each colour will vary depending on the type of skin tone you are trying to create.

Now, mixing red, yellow, blue, and white, in different amounts, creates different skin tones.

So here we've got equal amounts, we are creating this brown here.

Or maybe we add less red, so we've got a lighter brown.

Or less blue and more white creates this peachier colour.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which shape is typically used as the base for sketching a head: a rectangle, an oval, or a square? Pause the video here to have a go answering this question, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that an oval is the shape that's typically used as the base for sketching a head, you are absolutely right, well done.

Now, using the base skin tone as a starting point, you can create a range of similar hues, tints, and shades by adding more paint.

So here, we've got a base skin tone and we could add more black to create a darker shade or add white to create a tint.

So you can use this range of skin tones for painting a realistic and expressive portrait.

And you can adjust the hue of your skin tone by adding more of a primary colour or black.

So if we add black here, makes it a bit darker, we add more red, that's the colour that we can create, more yellow or more blue.

So you can see how we can adjust the hue of that skin tone by adding those primary colours or the black.

And if we add even more blue, the colour that we create there, it's a bit purply, isn't it? So you can add white to lighten and tint the colour, or you could add black to create a darker shade.

So taking a look here, if we add that white, how it lightens the colour.

Using light and shadow in a painting helps to create a sense of depth.

So that's why we need all of these different colours, these tints here, either by adding that white or adding black to create darker shades or lighter colours.

So use a slightly darker version of your skin tone on any areas in shadow.

So we can see here we've got the skin tone, and then adding that darker version for the shadows.

Now, you might apply this gently under the nose, around the eyes, or along the jawline, that's where we might see those shadows.

Now, you can use a lighter tone to add highlights where the light naturally falls.

So that might be on the forehead, on the nose, above the cheekbones, and maybe on the chin.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding here.

What goes in the missing gap? "Something helps to create depth and highlight expressions in a portrait painting." Erasers and sharpers, weight and size, light and shadow.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to answer this question, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that "Light and shadow helps to create depth and highlight expressions in a portrait painting," you are absolutely right, well done.

This brings us to our second learning task.

I'd like you to use the sketch you've already made, mix together colours in a palette with base skin tones, including a lighter and a darker tone.

So think about that base tone, creating a lighter version of it, and also a darker version of it.

So that's what I would like you to do first.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to do that, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Okay, now the second part of this, I'd like you to have a go at painting the face.

Start with the largest areas of the base skin tone before adding another layer for shadows and highlights.

So use smaller brushes for details like the eyes, lips, and eyebrows to enhance the facial expression.

Pause the video here to give yourself enough time to have a go at painting the face, and press Play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look at an example? So you may have, like in this example, used colour mixing to create skin tones, highlights and shadows for the foundational layers of this portrait painting.

So take a good look at that portrait there.

Hopefully it's quite similar to yours, using that base tone and then using the lighter and the darker tones for those highlights and those shadows.

So well done for having a go at that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about painting, and the foundations of a facial expression.

Facial expressions can be used to reflect certain emotions in portrait artworks.

By using proportion, facial features can be accurately drawn to create a realistic face.

By using techniques to sketch and paint a base portrait, we can capture key features of expression.

And colour mixing can be used to make a range of skin tones, hues, highlights, and shadows.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.