Writing Activity: Portraiture and Point of View

Using portraits to describe a narrator's point of view

Teachers and docents find that writing with art is an exciting, productive activity. Whether you are in a museum or a classroom, the following ideas and prompts can be springboards to writing for many purposes.  

Engagement Strategies:

If you were to hire a famous photographer to take a picture of you for a magazine cover, what would you be doing? What would you wear? How would you want the rest of the world to see you?

Questions / Activities:

Artists were hired to paint a person’s portrait much like a photographer might be hired to take a special picture today.

  • Choose a portrait (from the Davidson Gallery or apse, or any other). Spend some time looking. Become the person in this portrait. How do you feel? What are you looking at?

  • What is in the picture with you? Tell us why they are there. Include lots of details in your writing to help the readers imagine the portrait, even if they can’t see it.

  • What are you doing? What’s one thing about you that we can’t see? You might begin a line with “Once I...” or “Sometimes I feel as if...”

Possible Props:

Writing paper and clipboards to jot down responses to prompts.

What they take with them might become, with work, a character sketch or a poem.




0 Comments

2 Tags & 0 Keywords

Tags
Point of view — by Margaret Grace VanderVliet (April 15 2017 @ 2:24 pm)
Portrait — by Margaret Grace VanderVliet (April 15 2017 @ 2:24 pm)

Part of 1 Learning Collection

Writing With Art: A List of Possibilities
<p>A List of Activities: Writing with Portraits, La...

Write for Understanding Tour Overview
<p>A List of Potential Stops&nbsp;</p>

Writing Activity: Descriptive Language
Using landscapes to develop real or imagined experi...

Writing Activity: Compare and Contrast
Using similar content to compare and contrast in th...

Writing Activity: Figurative Language
<p>Using art to create metaphors and similes&nbsp;<...

Writing Activity: Visual Analysis
<p>Analyze how visual elements contribute to meanin...

Writing Activity: Research, Summary, Paraphrase
<p>Using art to gather information, summarize, para...

Writing Activity: Portraiture and Point of View
<p>Using portraits to describe a narrator's point o...

Writing Activity: Zoom In to Capture Descriptive Details
<p>Using a still life or landscape to write descrip...

Writing Activity: Great Leads and Narrative Sequence
<p>Writing a gripping lead and subsequent narrative...

Writing Activity: Haiku
<p>Using images of nature to create a haiku</p>

Writing Activity: Six Room Image Poem
<p>Using landscape to create a sensory poem</p>

Writing Activity: Exploring Emotions through Portraits
<p>Using portraits and free writing to unlock emoti...

Rate this Resource

AVG: 0 | Ratings: 0

& Author Notes

Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Last Updated

May 18, 2017 1:54 p.m.

Report


Reporting Policy