This document provides an overview for a unit plan on sketching portraits using charcoal as the medium. It includes information on the history of charcoal use from the Old Masters to modern artists, different types of charcoal and tools used, techniques for creating portraits, and requirements for a research assignment comparing artwork from different eras. Students will complete two studio sessions sketching portraits and a research essay comparing an Old Master and modern artist in terms of era, elements of art, and similarities and differences in their works. A critique of the final drawings will address principles of design.

1. Charcoal
Lesson 3
For
Unit Plan
By Marie Max-Fritz

2. Sketching Portraits
9th grade
Pennsylvania Academic
Standards for the Arts and
Humanities
1.4
Medium
8.1
9.1 Charcoal
9.2
9.3 History
9.4
9.5
9.6
The Old Masters to Moderns

4. Lesson Review
• Overview of medium, process, research essay
• History of artists
• 2 Studio sessions
• Extension: free time for research
• Teacher and student critique
• Research essays and final drawing due

5. Powdered Charcoal
Powdered charcoal is used to:
•create tonal values
•usually over larger surfaces
•easily erases and can be
•darkened by adding layers.

6. Compressed Charcoal
•Powdered with gum binder
•round or square sticks
•charcoal pencils.

7. Vine Charcoal
• * Vine charcoal is willow or linden/Tilia twigs
burnt into:
• soft
• medium
• hard consistencies

8. Pure Charcoal
•Very soft
•Very dark tones
•Very messy!

9. Accessories
• Kneaded eraser
• Tortillons (blending stump)
• Sandpaper block
Sandpaper block
Tortillons
Kneaded Erasers

10. Fixatives
Workable Fixative Fine Art Fixative Gloss/non-workable Fixative

11. The Human Figure
Portraits and sketches
by the Masters

12. Old Masters
Early Renaissance
High Renaissance
Baroque

13. Early Renaissance
15th Century (1400-1500 A.D.)
Raphael, 1507

14. High Renaissance
16th Century
(1500-1600 A.D.)
Michelangelo, 1528

15. Baroque
17th to 18th Centuries
(1600 – 1700’s A.D.)
Peter Paul
Rubens, 1610

16. Moderns
Romanticists and Impressionists
Goya, 1795

17. Romantic
18th and 19th Centuries
Delacroix, 1821

18. Impressionist
19th Century
Gaugin, circa 1890

19. Getting Started
• Clear drawing surface
• Layout paper
– horizontal for landscape viewpoint
– or vertical for portrait viewpoint
• Have drawing supplies ready
– Charcoal, kneaded eraser, tortillons (blend stick)
– Paper towels may be used for blending large areas

20. Step-by-step
-Sketch the figure lightly
-Make adjustments to proportions and
perspectives
-Add mid-tones with smooth or textured
marks
maintaining whiteness where desired
-Emphasize shadows by adding darker marks
-Blend
-Refine shadows and light

21. Critique: Discuss Elements
line Principles
shape Emphasis Balance Harmony V
ariety Movement Rhythm Pr
light and dark oportion Unity
mass
volume
texture
perspective

22. Research
Choose 2 figurative artists, one Old Master and one Modern Master, from the
lists below. Write one aesthetic critique essay for each.
Including:
1. time period
2. era/movement
3. elements of art
4. How are the artists similar?
5. How do they differ?
LeonardoDa Vinci Albrecht Dürer Michelangelo
Titian SandroBotticelli Raphael
El Greco Caravaggio Peter Paul Rubens
Nicolas Poussin Diego Velázquez Rembrandt van Rijn
Johannes Vermeer Donatello Jacques David
Francisco Goya Eugene Delacroix Theodore Gericault
Joseph Turner Mary Cassat John Singer Sargent
Auguste Renoir Edgar Degas Thomas Eakins
Eduard Manet Jean Courbet Henri de Toulouse L’autrec
James Whistler Frank Benson Theodore Robinson