Parental portraits

Arts & Activities, June, 2004 by Karen Skophammer

Someone once said, "Two of the most engaging roles in life are being a child's father and being a father's child." This poignant statement sparked an art experience for my kindergarten and first-grade students.

Because drawing portraits is always one of the units I teach for this age level, I decided to go into more depth than usual. We all eventually drew a portrait of our father, grandfather or uncles. However much pre-planning occurred, resulting in the amazing parental portraits, which were executed and hung in our school art gallery.

We looked at many portraits done of fathers/mothers. fathers/children, and fathers/extended families. During all of the viewing I asked such leading questions as. "What can you tell about this man from his portrait (physical attributes as well as what the man might be like)?" "What might his hobbies be?" "What kind of weather does he enjoy?" (There are many more questions to lead the students to really "look at and study" the portraits.)

One of the oil paintings the students really enjoyed was Jennifer Bartlett's Five A.M. (1991-92). It depicts what we interpreted as mother/father figures dancing on a patterned floor. The figures are rather primitive and each student could tell a story about the painting.

Such artists as Paul Gauguin painted and wrote about being fathers. In a letter by Paul Gauguin to Georges de Monfried, dated March 31, 1893, Gauguin wrote, "I soon shall be a father again in Oceanica. Here, children are welcome and are spoken for in advance by all the relatives. For you know, in Tahiti a child is the most beautiful present one can give." This is such a telling statement. Gauguin painted himself at this same time, and the portrait beams, reflecting how he felt as a father.

We viewed a photo by Robert Capa of Ernest Hemingway and his son Gregory lying by the water, ready to go hunting ... male-bonding. This sparked a discussion of our father's favorite hobbies, foods, colors and so on. The kids were beginning to see that a portrait is not just a drawing depicting a likeness. Rather, it is a portrayal with feeling.

We studied Family Group, a sculpture by Henry Moore. The kids said it reminded them of the Nativity scene.

Portraits of U.S. Presidents--most of whom were fathers--were viewed. I asked such questions as, "Can you tell what kind of a personality each one has?" "Why or why not?" "Is just one portrait a good representation of a person's personality?" "Why or why not?"

After looking at many works of art, it was a group consensus that a good portrait tells more about a person than just a physical description. It should tell a story. Keeping that in mind, we were ready to begin our portraits of our dads.

Each student felt the shape of his/her head. When the students were sure that human heads are basically oval-shaped and not a circle, each drew a head shape on the 18" x 24" paper. I reminded the kids to keep a vision of their dads in their minds, and think whether Dad's head was long, short, thick, thin, etc.

Next, we felt the shapes of our eyes, noses, ears and lips. Looking at the person across the table, each student observed that the eyes are drawn about even with the top of the ears. (We were trying to avoid eyes on the forehead.) Then, after feeling the shapes of our own facial features, each person again kept the vision of Dad in his/her head and drew the shape, sizes and proportions of Dad's.

Next we thought about hairstyles. How does Dad wear his hair? Does he have a beard or mustache? What about sideburns and eyebrows? These observances were transferred to the dad drawings.

Once the face was completely drawn, we drew bodies and items that would tell about our dad's personalities. The hobbies and likes/dislikes became very apparent as the kids busily drew.

With the drawings completed, we colored. Students used markers, colored pencils, crayons, or any combinations of the three to add color. We looked very carefully at hair to see that hair doesn't have just one color, but is actually a combination of many different colors. The students colored their dad's hair accordingly.

The students were so thrilled with their "Dad Portraits" that many of them drew portraits of their mothers too.

I find this art experience worked really well to teach proportions and placement of facial features, and the kids really remembered what they had learned. I've seen this transfer of drawing proportions and correct placement when they've drawn other pictures. They are now concerned with trying to get placements correct.

We hung all of these up with pride. Next year we plan to have them finished when we invite our dads to school for "Doughnuts with Dad Day!" That way the dads would get two treats!

Karen Skophammer teaches art for the Manson Northwest Webster Schools in Barnum and Manson, Iowa.