Arcimboldo Portraits

7th and 8th Grade Project

2024-25

The project began with an introduction to artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. His paintings serve as a lead-in to nontraditional portraiture and collage as an art-making medium. The project asks students to look at the face in more abstract terms, considering features as shapes and lines rather than simply what they are. The aim of the project is to get students to think about facial proportions and intentional art-making without focusing too much on technical accuracy. I have found that with observational portraiture drawing, students get caught up in the eyes looking exactly like eyes, the nose looking exactly like a nose, etc., rather than the composition of the whole face. The Arcimboldo Portraits project helps students be more comfortable and less self-judgemental.