Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about meaning and symbolism in art through drawing and painting.

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 plan a story artwork that uses your character and objects to convey meaning through symbolism.

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 key words we'll be using today are character, symbolism, and composition.

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

Character.

Symbolism.

Composition.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

A character is a person or figure in a story or artwork.

Symbolism is the use of symbols to communicate ideas, emotions, or stories in art.

And composition is the arrangement of visual elements in an artwork.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue press play.

These are the learning cycles that'll be working through together in today's lesson.

Character and object meanings and planning a symbolic artwork.

In this first learning cycle, we're going to explore characters and objects through meanings.

What makes a great story? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, interesting characters, an immersive world or environment, and descriptive details are just some of the things that make a great story.

An effective story should communicate a clear sense of narrative.

Not all stories use words to describe a narrative.

In art, narrative is the story that the image tells.

In art, imagery like characters, objects and scenes can be used to show ideas, convey meanings, and tell stories.

Looking at this artwork here, we can see a central character in the middle.

This woman with long flowing hair.

It's almost red and orange.

It might symbolise flames and fire.

And surrounded by all of these bursts of different bright colours.

It looks a bit like a sunset or a sunrise.

And the greens and the yellows might symbolise different fields and different crops.

So maybe the objects in this artwork are conveying a story of growth and maybe of community as well.

Characters can be designed to convey personality, mood, and express ideas through their appearance, clothes, body language, and facial expression, and also the objects that they may hold.

Let's take a look at this character here in this image.

What do you notice about this character's personality and the mood? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you notice? What could convey the personality and mood of this character? Well, maybe you noticed the clothes, the big pink dress, and how this maybe conveys a joyful personality, someone who likes to dance.

But you might have also noticed her facial expression.

She looks a bit worried, may be tense.

And this conveys a mood of uncertainty.

Maybe this character has been forced to dance in a play and they're not very sure that they want to be.

Think about how a superhero character might wear bold or brightly coloured clothing to stand out, whereas someone wearing darker clothes might seem more mysterious.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

What superhero characters can you think of? And discuss the type of clothing they wear and why you might think they're wearing that.

And press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Where there some superheroes that wore bright, bold clothing and some that wore darker clothing that made them more mysterious? Characters can also express different emotions like joy, sadness, or anger through their facial expressions and body language.

Your characters can be real or fictional and how you choose to depict them will influence the narrative of your artwork.

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

What is a narrative in art? The story your artwork tells.

A type of pencil.

A shape you draw.

A famous artist's name.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that a narrative in art is the story your artwork tells, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Symbolism means using images or objects to stand for ideas or meanings.

Artists often include symbols to make their stories more powerful and meaningful.

Objects are often used to represent something and add symbolic meaning to an artwork.

What symbolic meanings might we associate with these objects? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? What symbolic meanings might these objects have? Well, a magnifying glass maybe suggests curiosity and adventure.

A crown might symbolise power, strength, or status.

And a clock could represent time passing or history.

And there might be other symbolic meanings that you can think of as well.

Discuss with a partner an object you could use as a symbol in your artwork to reveal more details about your character.

Pause the video here.

When you've had that discussion, press play to continue.

What did you discuss with your partner? Maybe your object was a pair of binoculars, because maybe your character looks after a nature reserve or a wildlife park.

Or maybe your character is a botanist, someone who looks after plants, so maybe they have a flower as a symbol or maybe even a watering can.

Hopefully you were able to think of those different objects that could be a symbol to reveal more details about your character.

Aisha says that my filmmaker character will carry cameras and photos.

Andeep says, my explorer character carries a map and compass for their journey.

And Jun says, my scientist character will have beakers and scientific equipment.

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

Which of these is an example of an object with symbolic meaning? A pencil for equipment.

A crown for power.

A tree for shade.

A ball for shapes.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? That's right.

A crown for power is an example of an object with symbolic meaning.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to use the table provided to list your character, objects, and what their symbolic meaning might be.

Pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this task and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Shall we take a look at an example? So maybe your character is the lost explorer, so you might have some objects like a ripped map, a compass, maybe a broken clock.

And maybe the symbolic meaning is that the ripped map symbolises an uncertain journey, the compass is used for guidance, and the broken clock suggests that they have no sense of time.

So well done for having go at thinking about your character and what objects they might have and what symbolic meaning those objects might have.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to have a look at planning a symbolic artwork.

Artists create plans so their ideas are clear.

A good plan means your viewer can understand the narrative without you needing to explain it.

As you draw and sketch your ideas, remember your plan and consider who the character is, what their story is, and which objects help to show symbolism.

The next stage of planning a symbolic artwork is to prepare a composition sketch.

Composition is how you arrange things on the page.

And it helps to guide the viewer's eye to what's important in the story.

You can see someone here sketching the figure of a character design.

They might include that within their composition.

Now sketch each part of your composition lightly in pencil.

And this makes it easier to erase, edit, and move sections around if you need to.

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

Why is planning your artwork important? So you don't forget your pencil.

So you can copy a friend.

So you can finish quickly.

So your story and meanings are clear.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Why is planning your artwork important? If you said so your story and meanings are clear, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Looking at artworks, illustrations and book covers can be a great way to find inspiration and ideas for your own designs.

Paula Rego is a Portuguese artist who is famous for making artworks based on storybooks.

She builds narratives and scenes with strong characters and objects.

Her work often tells dark, fairy tale inspired stories with layered symbolism.

Kara Walker is an African American artist that uses silhouettes and symbolic figures to tell powerful stories about race, identity, and history.

Her work highlights how characters and objects convey meaningful narratives.

Consider how your character and objects are arranged in the composition.

They should be easy to see and understand to help make the meaning of the final artwork clear.

Have a look at this watercolour painting of a face amongst flowers.

What do you think the artist wanted to convey here? Maybe they wanted the flowers to symbolise growth or beauty.

Objects are not just in your artwork for decoration.

Remember that objects add symbolic meaning, value, and narrative to the overall artwork.

As you sketch, you might discover more ideas for objects to include.

A useful question to ask yourself is, what does this object tell us about the story? Experiment with the positions and placements of objects until the overall composition looks balanced.

You can see here an artist is positioning drawings using the method of tracing.

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

Which question helps you check if your objects show symbolism? Do I like this colour? Did I draw quickly? What does this object tell us about the story? Did I use a ruler? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that the question that helps you check if your objects show symbolism is what does this object tell us about the story, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to sketch some of the elements of your story artwork.

You should review your planning from task A, sketch three or five symbolic objects, working from observation where possible, and you should include your character alongside the objects.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at sketching some of the elements of your story artwork, and going through each of these steps to do that, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Were you able to review your planning from task A, sketch those symbolic objects, and make sure to include your character alongside? Well, maybe like Andeep you've got this.

I made a sketch of a lost explorer character.

I added clothing details to match his character, a ripped map and question mark signposts to show they are lost.

I also practise drawing mountains and a lantern.

So maybe like Andeep you've got these different elements surrounding your character that really showcase the different symbolic meanings of those objects to add more to your character's meaning.

Well done.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about planning a story artwork, including character and objects.

Artists use symbolism to convey meaning in their work.

Symbolism can be shown through characters and objects that have hidden meanings or represent ideas.

Careful planning helps tell a clear story and create a strong narrative through art.

Composition helps to arrange elements in an artwork to make them clear and stand out.

Thank you for joining me this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.