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Year 4 - Art and design

Art about dreams

Dream portraits: drawing and digital design

Unit Summary

This unit explores how dreams have inspired artists, especially the Surrealists. Pupils will illustrate a piece of dream text, then learn how to draw and shade a sleeping portrait, before transforming it into a digital design.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to identify, discuss and visually respond to the work of a Surrealist artist.

Key Notes

  • Some Surrealist artworks are inspired by dreams and the subconscious of the artist.
  • Surrealist artworks are distinctive because they often contain images that don't belong together.
  • Strange or unusual things often happen in Surrealist artworks.
  • Opinions about an artwork can be shared with a verbal and a visual response.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • Surrealism: an art movement that began in the 1920s, known for its strange and unusual artworks
  • dreams: the ideas we have while we are sleeping
  • subconscious: the part of our mind that makes decisions instinctively, without actively thinking
  • visual response: to use images to express what you think or feel
  • opinion: what you think about something

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Opinions about an artwork can only be shared through words.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

Some Surrealist artworks are inspired by dreams and the subconscious of the artist. Surrealist artworks are distinctive because they often contain images that don't belong together.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'Surrealism'

an art movement that began in the 1920s, known for its strange and unusual artworks.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: Opinions about an artwork can only be shared through words. Correction: Remind children that we can share our opinions about an artwork with both a verbal and a visual response. It is another way of telling others what interests us most about an artwork.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 4 Art and design guide library.