Year 9 - Art and design
Using portraiture to reveal and conceal identities
Identity: exploring portraiture
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores portraiture's power in expressing identity, culture, and belief. Pupils will study artists who challenge stereotypes and explore power, representation, and concealment. They will develop critical thinking while reinforcing respect, tolerance, and self-expression.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to play with negative space and mark-making to create an expressive portrait.
Key Notes
- Portraits often reveal how a person looks, but artists can also create portraits that conceal their physical appearance.
- Portraits can challenge us to look at people from different perspectives rather than traditional representations.
- Negative space portraits can help to reveal other aspects of identity.
- Playing with materials to express emotions can bring our feelings to the forefront of our portraits.
Vocabulary To Learn
- conceal: to hide or obscure parts of something
- reveal: to show or uncover something that might not be obvious
- positive space: the area occupied by the main subject
- negative space: the empty area around or within a subject in an artwork
- silhouette: a dark shape or outline usually filled with black
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Negative space just means there's nothing there — it's empty or unfinished
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Portraits often reveal how a person looks, but artists can also create portraits that conceal their physical appearance. Portraits can challenge us to look at people from different perspectives rather than traditional representations.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'conceal'
to hide or obscure parts of something.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Negative space just means there's nothing there — it's empty or unfinished. Correction: Negative space may look 'empty,' but artists use it intentionally to draw attention elsewhere — it helps us focus on shape, emotion, or story without showing everything. It's a powerful choice, not a mistake.
More Lessons In This Unit
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