Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about photography and painting and looking at facial expressions in portraiture.

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 use tone and colour to express emotions in portraits.

Now 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 keywords we'll be using today are tone, colour, facial expression, tint, shade.

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

Tone, colour, facial expression, tint, shade.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Let's take a look at each of their definitions.

Tone is how light or dark something is.

Colour is an object's appearance as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.

Facial expression is the appearance of the face that shows feelings and emotions.

Tint is where an artist adds a colour to white to create a lighter version of the colour.

A shade is where an artist adds black to a colour to darken it.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that'll be working through together in today's lesson.

Experimenting with tone and colour to convey emotions and creating expressive portraits with tone and colour.

In the first learning cycle, we'll explore experimenting with tone and colour to convey emotions.

How might this line drawing portrait be developed to become more expressive? Hmm.

Take a look at that line drawing portrait there.

How could it be developed to become more expressive? Well, tone and colour can be used in portraits to convey emotions adding depth and meaning to facial expressions.

Can see in this portrait how that tone and colour has been added to create depth and meaning to facial expressions.

Tone refers to how light or dark something is.

Colour is an object's appearance as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.

By using different tones and colours, artists can express different emotions.

What might the dark tones used in this portrait painting suggest? Take a look at that portrait painting there.

What do you think? What do those dark tones suggest? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well, take a look at this.

The dark tones in this painting might suggest mystery, sadness, and seriousness.

Did you think any of those? Now artists experiment with different tones and colours in their portraits to make them more emotionally expressive.

Examples of tone and colour expressive portraits that you could take a look at include Vincent van Gogh's "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear", Frida Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird", and "Razorbill" by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

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

What might a dark tone in a painting suggest? Happiness, mystery or sadness, excitement.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to have a go answering that question and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that a dark tone in a painting might suggest mystery or sadness, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now tone refers to the lightness or darkness of something.

Tone helps to show depth, shadows, and highlights, which makes facial expressions look realistic and expressive.

Take a look at that portrait there.

Look at how the tone helps to show depth, shadows, and highlights.

Now colours can communicate feelings and enhance expression.

Cool colours like blue and purple suggest calmness and sadness, whereas warm colours like red and orange can show joy and excitement.

Artists use different tones to add highlights and shadows to different parts of the face.

This can emphasise facial expressions and convey emotions like joy, fear, or anger.

An example of tone being used in this way include Rembrandt's self-portraits.

Can you see here on this portrait where the highlights and where the shadow are and how that helps to emphasise the facial expression? Tone can be used to help show the foreground and background in art.

Take a look at these two images here.

We've got darker tones in the background, which can make the subject stand out.

And in this one, lighter background tones create a sense of space and distance.

Colours can change how we feel about a painting.

Here you can see the same portrait facial expression with two different backgrounds.

Talk to your partner, discuss how changing the background can also change the feeling that the portrait evokes.

Pause the video here and give yourself some time for that discussion and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think about those two portraits? The difference between those cooler blues and greys and those warmer oranges and reds.

What kind of feeling do those portraits evoke? Well, Jacob, he says, "The orange and yellow background feels more energetic and joyful while the dark blue one feels sad and more serious." Alex, he says, "Looking at the orange background, the portrait seems to look warmer while the blue painting makes him feel colder just by looking at it." What did you think? Did you agree with either Jacob or Alex or did you have some other thoughts? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these is an example of a warm colour? Orange, purple, silver.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to answer this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that orange is an example of a warm colour, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to create a colourful rainbow wheel divided into 12 equal sections for 12 colours.

Red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-purple, purple, red-purple.

Now beside each colour, write any emotions and feelings that the colour reminds you of.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at creating a colourful rainbow wheel and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Did you write down the emotions and feelings that those colours reminded you of? Well, let's take a look at an example.

So hopefully, you had chance to create a colourful rainbow wheel that divided into 12 equal sections for those 12 colours, and here's an example there.

Now beside each colour, you needed to write some emotions and feelings that that colour reminded you of.

So for example, next to the red-orange, you could have had power.

Near the yellow, joy.

Near the blue, sadness.

Near the red-purple, love.

So are lots of examples there.

Some might be similar to yours.

Well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to look at creating expressive portraits with tone and colour.

Monochrome means using only one colour.

You can lighten or darken a single colour to create a range of tones by adding white or black.

These tones can be used to create depth in an artwork.

If you are using paint, you can add white or black to create a range of tones.

So you can see here on this scale, if we add white to that colour, we can start to create a range of tones that are lighter.

And if we add black, we can create a range of tones that are darker.

Now if using a pencil, you can increase the pressure to darken the tone.

So you can see, as you go lighter with the pencil in terms of the pressure, then you get lighter tones, or if you press harder, you're going to get darker tones.

Now let's see how to apply tone to a simple facial expression to show sadness.

So see that simple facial expression that we've drawn there.

You can start with a pencil outline, add shading to the areas of the face with the darkest tones.

So the darkest tones we've added here around the eyes making the eyebrows darker, the inner ear, under the nose and mouth, and under the jaw and neck.

That's why we've added the darkest tones.

Now we're going to add the mid tones, so slightly lighter on the forehead, the side of the face, the cheeks, and on the clothes.

Now an eraser can be used for the highlights or the lightest tone, so we can rub some away.

Now remember, we're trying to create the emotion of sadness.

So on the bridge of the nose, you've added a bit of highlight.

And here areas where the light catches the face.

So that's where we've added highlights or the lightest tones using an eraser rubbing away that pencil.

Now finally, tones are blended, so the hair details and the background are then added to complete the portrait.

So here we've got our portrait and expressing that sadness.

Can you see how the tones have been used? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

We have a missing word here.

What should go there? Something can be used in a portrait to add depth.

Artists signatures, tone, or rulers.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to answer this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that tone can be used in a portrait to add depth, you are absolutely right.

Well done.

Now just as tone can be used to reveal the lightness or darkness of a subject, colour can be used in a similar way.

So a tint is where an artist adds a colour to white to create a lighter version of the colour.

So can you see with this dark blue here, how white has been added to make it lighter.

Those tints are useful for creating lighter tones and highlights.

To shade is where an artist adds black to a colour to darken it.

So here, adding to that purple.

Shade can be used when creating darker tones in a portrait.

Tints and shades can be used to create a range of similar colours.

You can see some different versions there of that grey, purple, green, and almost a peachy pink colour.

You can use tints and shades to give a portrait more depth and make it more expressive.

And when preparing to create an expressive portrait, you can refer back to your colour emotion wheel and create colour swatches for feelings you might want to evoke.

So thinking about maybe yellow for excitement, happy, joy, or red for power, anger, strength, or maybe blues that show sadness, calm or peace.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

What colour might you use to depict anger in a portrait? Light blue, soft pink, or dark red? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that you would use dark red to show anger in a portrait, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

Now you may have previously drawn a large portrait of yourself.

You could use this sketch or use a mirror to draw yourself portrait.

Next, use expressive colours with light and dark tones to bring out the features in your portrait, and then finish your portrait with a background of your choice, considering your choice of colour.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So you may have created a portrait that has warm and cool colours like this one.

They've been used with a dark purple tone to help define the features, and a light blue background was added to create atmosphere.

What kind of emotion does that portrait express to you? What kind of emotions were you trying to express with tone and colour in your portraits? Well done for completing this learning task.

Now before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about drawing using tone and colour for facial expressions.

Tone refers to the lightness or darkness of an object.

Tints and shades can be created from a single colour by adding white or black.

Colours evoke a wide range of emotions and can be included in a portrait to enhance expressiveness.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.