Miniature Portrait Digital Art

Lesson Plan Submitted by: Carol Coffman
Elementary Art Teacher at Merrimack Elementary in Hampton, Va.
Grades: Fifth Grade

Procedure:

This is a great lesson to do in conjunction with your computer tech. Show examples of portrait miniatures especially from the Tudor family... lots of detail. Discuss why someone would want such a small portrait (Large scale vs. small scale). Possibly talk about wallet size photographs.

Have the students use a webcam to take a self-portrait and enhance that portrait using a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop if you have it. There are other image editing software.

You can miniaturize the finished project and turn them into pins or necklaces that the students can wear to PTA events and trade with each other- A modern day miniature.

(* If your school does not have the equipment, you can always resize hand made portraits on the photocopier... just as an effective finished product!)

A Tudor nobility miniature portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh, date unknown, Raleigh (1552?-1618)

Once you finish editing your image with a graphics program, you can print off the image and put it in a button. You can buy pre-cut Paper Circles and Button and Badge Maker online. Students could print up multiple images and then trade buttons.

Materials:

• Portrait miniatures

• Computer (Apple and PC works just fine)

• Digital Camera

• Photo editing software (You can buy Photoshop and Photoshop Elements at the Adobe Software Page)

• Copier

Resources

Tudor History of Painting in 1000 Color Reproductions [Hardcover] by Maillard - 1,000 paintings of the Tudor family.

Tudor Portraits: In the National Portrait Gallery Collection - This book includes a collection of Tudor portraits in the National Portrait Gallery.