Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about dream portraits through drawing and digital design.

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 select images and arrange a composition for a surreal dreamscape collage.

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 select, composition, overlap.

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

Select.

Composition.

Overlap.

Good job.

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

When you select something you choose elements to include in an artwork.

Composition is how the images are arranged within the artwork.

Overlap is when images are layered over one another.

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.

Selecting imagery for a collage, and creating a composition for a collage.

In the first learning cycle, we're going to explore selecting imagery for a collage.

Which images have been selected for this dreamscape collage? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner.

What images have been selected here for this dreamscape collage? And press play when you're ready to continue.

what can you see? Well, maybe the cake or the person lying down or the letter E.

Well, what makes this collage composition surreal rather than realistic? Hmm, pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? What makes this collage composition surreal rather than realistic? Well, it might be quite unusual to see some of these images together, like that big cake and someone lying down next to it.

Artists sometimes select images which have personal meaning to them.

Jacob is thinking about his collage.

He says, I'm" going to select a cake for my collage, as they always remind me of my favourite memories of making them with my granddad." Alex has a different idea about his collage.

He says, "I'm going to select an image of a shell, as they remind me of my favourite art lesson!" What images might you select for your collage? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What would you select? What things mean something to you or are reminders? When creating a dreamscape collage composition, an artist might want to arrange the selected images in a particular way to make them more surreal and dreamlike.

So we've got these unusual objects grouped together in one artwork, like the shell and the cake.

Now, some objects might be much bigger and some objects might be much smaller than they should be, and that's experimenting with scale.

So you can see here that the shells are really quite big and the cake is much smaller.

You might do strange or unusual things happening to your images.

For example, the shell and the cake might be upside down, and it looks a bit like the cake is on top of the shell, even though it's upside down.

But before making a collage, Jacob and Alex are thinking about different ideas for their surrealist dreamscape composition.

Jacob says, "I could play with scale and make the cake much larger than a cake in the real world." And Alex says, "Great idea! Maybe you could also use an image of a creature eating it?" Jacob then says, "Well, how about using an image of a frog? They are my favourite animal!" Alex agrees, "Yes! You would not normally find a frog and a cake in the real world together, so that is really surreal." Here's an image of what that could look like.

A frog there eating that cake.

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

Which of the following statements apply to a surrealist dreamscape? Unusual objects together in one artwork.

Objects being much bigger or much smaller than in reality.

Strange or unusual things happening within the artwork.

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

What did you think? Well, if you said all three, you're absolutely right.

All of these features could be in a Surrealist dreamscape.

Alex is thinking about making his collage and how he will need to cut out complex shapes using scissors.

"Sometimes I find it difficult to cut out detailed shapes with scissors," says Alex, "I accidentally cut off bits I don't mean to, or I cannot get the edges as neat as I want!" What could Alex do to make using scissors easier? Hmm, pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How could we help Alex? Well, there are two things that Alex could try to make cutting complex shapes easier.

He could have his thumbs facing upwards towards the ceiling, and he could try moving the paper rather than the scissors to cut round those more complex shapes.

And you see the artist doing that here, moving the paper instead of the scissors, and their thumbs are facing upwards towards the ceiling.

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

Is this statement true or false? When cutting complex shapes, you should move the scissors rather than the paper you are cutting.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, is this statement true or false? And press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said this statement is false, you're absolutely right.

Now, can you explain why? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said, "It can help by moving the paper you are cutting, rather than the scissors," you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to select and cut out a range of images from magazines.

You can also cut out images that you've drawn or those from photocopies or photographs.

Now, you might select images that are unusual when you group them together in one artwork.

You might choose images that have a different scale than the objects around them, and maybe you might choose some images that are behaving in a strange or unusual way.

Pause the video here to give yourself enough time to select and cut out those images and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Well, hopefully you've selected some images that are unusual when you group them together in one artwork, like the images of these on the side here.

Maybe you've picked things that are a different scale than the objects around them, or maybe objects that are behaving in a strange or unusual way.

Well done for having a go at that learning task.

We're now ready to move into the second part of our lesson.

We are going to create a composition for a collage.

Artists might use a variety of found materials in a collage.

As well as selecting ready-made images, they might also use found paper such as paper bags or receipts, fabric scraps, or tissue paper.

After an artist selects images, they will need to think about how to arrange their images into a composition.

The composition of their artwork is the artist's choice, but there are some ideas that they could use to help them.

Using a triangular composition can be seen in many artworks.

So you might have one central triangle or one triangle to one side, or maybe two triangles.

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

Triangular composition is the only way an artist can arrange their layout.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about this, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's false, you're absolutely right.

Now, if that's false, why is that? Can you explain? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well, if you said that "Many artworks feature a triangular composition, but ultimately, the artist has the freedom to decide how to arrange their images," then you're right.

Well done.

Now, think about how you might compose your sleeping portrait with the images you've selected and cut out.

Here, the objects have been composed into two triangles, and both triangles have used the large letter E.

Can you see there how we have a triangle on the left coming from the E? And then we've got a triangle on the right here as well that includes the pear and the sleeping portrait.

Now, this time the composition has been arranged differently.

Can you see how it's changed? The objects have been composed into two triangles of a similar size.

An artist can also overlap their images within a collage.

This means to layer images over one another, but we can still see some parts of each image.

By overlapping the images we have selected, an artist can direct our attention to the images they feel are most important or should be looked at first.

So here we've got the pear sitting on top of the moth.

That's overlapping.

Now in this composition, the sleeping portrait has been placed at the front overlapping some of the other images.

Why do you think the artist has done this? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Why has the artist done this? Well, Jacob says, "I think the artist has placed the sleeping portrait on top of the other images because they want me to notice it more than the other images." What did you think? Does that draw your eye more to the sleeping portrait? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which images have been overlapped: A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said that A and B are both images overlapped, you're absolutely right.

The images are layered over one another, but we can still see parts of all of the images.

This brings us to our final learning task.

Now firstly, without glueing anything down, experiment with different compositions using the images you have selected.

You might want to think about moving your images around until you're happy with your composition, overlapping your images in different ways, and maybe experimenting with triangular composition.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go experimenting with different compositions first, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, how did that go? Hopefully you've had enough time to experiment with those different compositions to get those images you've selected into the right places.

Now, when you are happy with your composition, I now want you to glue your selected images down onto your paper.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to glue all of your composition into the right place, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, hopefully when you were experimenting, you moved your images to form different compositions, you overlapped your images thinking about which image might be most important to you, and then maybe you use different materials to fill the space, such as found paper or fabric.

And then when you were happy, hopefully you were then able to glue your images down, and you've designed your composition with images forming those triangles and overlapped your selected images to share your ideas with the viewer.

Maybe your artwork looks a little bit like this.

Which of the compositions did you enjoy the most when you were forming triangles? Did you try doing two triangles, maybe three, or did you just focus on one key triangle? Did you choose your sleeping portrait as the key point that came forward, the main image that you wanted your viewer to see? Did you include a letter? Well, I hope you had a good time having a go at organising your composition in different ways, and I hope you finished with a collage that you were really happy with.

Well done for having a go at this learning task, creating your own composition for a collage.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about a surreal dreamscape collage.

By moving the material rather than the scissors, complex shapes are much easier to cut.

We know that triangular composition can help to draw attention to parts of an artwork, but it doesn't have to be used by the artist.

And overlapping images can help an artist to share what they think is most important within the artwork.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.