A nice lesson idea that challenges students to respond to narrative paintings depicting figures in a scene, by producing their own narrative compositions. This lesson works well over two hours, with the aim of producing a compositional drawing, however, the project could be developed further if more time is available.
After showing examples of relevant artists’ work, and deciding what scene they wish to depict themselves, student can make fast drawings to collect the figures they need. This could be done from a model, pairing up with other class members, working from imagination, or using photographs found in newspapers and magazines. Having collated their sketches, students can be shown ways of connecting their figures to make successful compositions for a narrative scene, considering interactions between their characters, the stage set that the figures are in, as well as the light source and shadows.
