On teaching portraiture as part of pre-vocational and higher art education

Abstract

Unlike other art education institutions, the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts of Sergey Andriaka applies the method of visual instruction – the teacher performs tasks from the curriculum in the classroom. The scientific and methodological journal Secreta Artis unveils never published before graphic portraits made by the teacher of the Academy A. R. Davlashyan during her classes on academic drawing as part of pre-vocational and higher education courses. Portrait drawings are done quickly, in three to four hours, with the usage of various graphic techniques. As a result, students not only get insight into the methodology behind sequential development of the portrait composition, proportions, volume, transmission of light and air, etc., but also observe the process of drawing from the perspective of multiple techniques.Moreover, it is important to underline that one of the fundamental principles at the Academy is the continuity of education. Such an approach, in turn, allows one to organize teaching by formulating a logical sequence of progressively more complex tasks, which are first to be performed by students in the pre-vocational programme. Likewise, more advanced assignments are devised for higher art education courses. The author of the article shares her personal experience of working on a portrait, enumerates effective author’s techniques and original principles of interaction with students; she further outlines diverse drawing exercises, as well optimal task sequence at the first stages of teaching portraiture with their gradual complication (namely, depiction of the emotional world of the person, creation of a portrait with a composed background). Seemingly, the methods of teaching portraiture have long been elaborated. Nonetheless, there always remains a necessity for unconventional creative approaches to teaching, accumulation of personal pedagogical experience and search for alternative tools of interaction with students.