DRAWING (2): Profile Portrait
NAME:_______________________
LESSON FOCUS:
This lesson focuses on creating a self-portrait profile inspired by the art of Giuseppe
Arcimboldo.
VOCABULARY:
Contour drawing: Drawing in which only contour lines are used to represent the subject
matter.
Contour line: A line that defines the edges and surface ridges of an object.
Portrait: Image of a person, especially the face and upper body.
Profile: Side view of a face.
Renaissance: The name given to the period at the end of the Middle Ages when artists,
writers, and philosophers were “re-awakened” to art forms and ideas from ancient Greece
and Rome.
Silhouette: Outline drawing of a shape. Originally a silhouette was a profile portrait,
filled in with a solid color.
Symbol: something that stands for, or represents something else.
PROCEDURE:
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Stand sideways in front of the white projection screen to have your profile
photographed.
Draw a 1”x 1” grid directly onto the photograph.
o You will have 80 - 1” squares.
o If needed, number them to help you transfer you drawing to good paper.
On a 16”x 20” piece of manila paper, draw a 2”x 2” grid.
o You will have 80 – 2” squares.
o If needed, number them the same way you number the grid on the photo.
Carefully create a contour drawing of your profile in pencil.
If done correctly, you will have doubled the photograph of your paper.
Trace your sketch onto 16”x 20” manila sketch paper.
On a scrap piece of paper, brainstorm about ideas that represent “self”. This could
be personality traits, interests, colors, hobbies, etc. and try to develop visual
symbols or images to represent them.
Begin to arrange these symbols and images within the silhouette portrait. You
may make your features out of certain shapes or placement of items.
Transfer your sketch onto 16”x 20” white drawing paper.
Finish, using a colored pencils, markers, and/or crayons.
Fill the background with colors images and shapes that compliment your portrait.
MATERIALS:
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Photograph of your profile
16”x 20” white paper
pencils and erasers
ruler
colored pencils, markers, crayons
Portrait
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (also spelled Arcimboldi; 1527 - July 11, 1593) was an Italian
painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects
as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books - that is, he painted representations of these
objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed
a recognisable likeness of the portrait subject.
Arcimboldo was born in Milan in 1527, the son of Biagio, a painter who did work for the
office of the Fabbrica in the Duomo. Arcimboldo was commissioned to do stained glass
window designs beginning in 1549, including the Stories of St. Catherine of Alexandria
vitrage at the Duomo. In 1556 he worked with Giuseppe Meda on frescoes for the
Cathedral of Monza. In 1558, he drew the cartoon for a large tapestry of the Dormition of
the Virgin Mary, which still hangs in the Como Cathedral today.