(melodious music) - Hello, early learners and welcome back to the Art Room.

All week we've been talking about portraits, it's our portrait study, and if you've been with us then you know that portrait is a word that's used for a picture that shows a subject or subjects.

For instance, I brought my portrait of me and my brothers when I was 10 years old.

My family took us to a portrait studio and the portrait photographer took a picture of us, and it's what my mum used to have hanging over her dresser and she would look at it and remember what we looked like as small children.

So, let's start out with our Hello Song.

♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ ♪ Hello to you, hello to you, hello to you, hello to me ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ - Let's think back of what we've learned.

We've learned the five words that started with the same letter.

Let me get that right here, I have it, Miss Laura's magnetic board that we show letters that we're talking about.

And if it's the beginning of your name it's called your special letter, like my special letter is C, for Claudia.

That's my first name.

So, this is the special letter for all the words we're talking about with the portrait study, and we always start our letters at the top.

♪ Oh, we always start our letters at the top ♪ ♪ Yes, we always start our letters at the top ♪ ♪ Is this the top, top, top?

♪ ♪ No, that's the bottom, bottom, bottom ♪ ♪ We always start our letters at the top ♪ - And the top starts with one big line down, big line down.

Did you notice when I traced it?

I didn't do bottom up.

Top down.

And then the second part of our letter is a small curve and I do it like this.

Big line down, frog jump up, little curve, P, make your mouth do it.

(gentle puffing) - It's like you're trying to puff out your birthday candle.

We don't say Pa for the letter P. It would have to have a P and a U to say Pa. We say, (gentle popping) - Let's try it with all of our words.

On the chart, I have five words that I chose to always talk to you about all week long, and the first one is the name of the whole study.

It's called the portrait study, and the portraits have been of Modigliani's portrait, of the woman with the necklace and then we moved on to Picasso, Picasso, Picasso, another P, P, P. And then we went to today's is going to be Vincent van Gogh, but let's go through.

So we did the portrait, picture.

That's a picture of something.

Person is one of people, people is two or more.

But person you say, oh, look at all those people.

You wouldn't say, oh, look at all those persons.

No, all the people.

Oh, there's one person wearing a black and white striped shirt.

I wonder if it's Picasso.

Then, there's profile.

Remember, we turn sideways to get the profile.

And a pose.

One of the men who work here at the studio came in to see if I was doing fine and he goes, he gave me the pose, are you... Like this, which means thumbs up, are you ready?

And I said, thumbs up.

So, that's my pose.

Thumbs up, ready to go.

All right, so those are our P words and we also talk about being a portrait detective.

Now, all the other portraits were portraits that were done by other artists of different people.

This portrait that we're studying today by Vincent van Gogh, V, V, Vincent van Gogh, is a self portrait.

He sat and looked at himself.

I wonder if he was looking into a shining glass window or if he stopped and looked in his mirror, and he looked and he said, what is the shape of my face?

Well, we can tell he thinks his face is shaped like an oval.

And he says, what is the shape of my eyes?

Well, they are like an almond.

What is the shape of my nose?

It's straight.

What is the width of my nose?

Well, it's kind of narrow.

He doesn't have a broad nose.

Some people have thin, little noses.

Some people have broad noses.

Then it goes down, he has a mustache and a beard and his hair looks like it has an M up here.

He probably had more hair when he was younger but even in his photograph, he has that same look.

Maybe he was looking at himself in a photograph and painting what he looked like 'cause he looks very much like his photograph.

I think we should take a look at Mona Lisa and talk about what her portrait looked like, because there is a song to help us remember about portraits and the song goes like this.

♪ Mona ♪ ♪ Mona Lisa, the most famous portrait of all ♪ - And if Mona Lisa is the most famous portrait, another portrait that is seen over and over again is ones of Vincent van Gogh.

I brought a book that tells all about Here's Looking At Me.

It's a book of all kinds of self portraits and portraits that different artists have done.

If your teacher gets this out of the library, I can't remember if this was one of the ones we bought for all the teachers to have, but there are lots and lots of them at the library at the County Library- I didn't check Sora, but in our District Library, these are so interesting.

This was when he had his ear injury and he had this bandage around his head, and we can tell it was winter because he had on a fur hat and we know that he had on a big old coat, so that's another clue when we are detectives and talking about different kinds of portraits done.

Being a portrait detective we would know, wintertime.

He had an injury.

We can find out all the things about it.

And he had a sad looking face in this picture but in the one that we're going to be working with today, it shows the same kind of painting that he did with the Starry Night.

And that's the interesting thing about the project today, I'm using all monochromatic, that means one color, different hues of it, so I'm going to be using that to do my swirling painting.

And for his hair, even though he has a red hair in this picture, I'm only using black, white, and blue.

So I might have to make him have blue hair or maybe his hair will be gray, I'll make it with some black and white and mix it together.

But we're going to do this portrait and think about, first an oval, and the neck and the shoulders, because that anchors your picture for you because you just think, well, where am I putting this?

Where am I putting that?

So, let's sing our song about portraits that goes like, hello everybody, yes siree.

And I brought this drum today and look how it's fashioned.

It has a braid around it and then it has the strings for that, and this one was made also in Peru.

And I can use my beating stick, well I don't know what I did with it but I can sure use my paint brush since I don't know what I did with my beating stick.

(rhythmic drumming) - It's really loud.

So the song goes like this.

Remember, it's hello everybody, yes siree, yes siree, yes siree, let's make portraits, yes siree, yes siree, my darling.

So, if you have any instruments that you can tap together, remember you can just use your legs if that's all you have.

So, here we go.

♪ Hello everybody, yes siree ♪ ♪ Yes siree, yes siree ♪ ♪ Let's make portraits, yes siree ♪ ♪ Yes siree, my darling ♪ - Alrighty.

Let me set this instrument aside and we'll put these things up and talk about how we're going to be doing this painting and I'll show you what I've prepared for my paints.

I didn't bring newspaper, foo- Oh, goodness, foolishly.

So I'm gonna have to be careful 'cause this chair has nice fabric on it and I don't want anything to happen to it.

So I have- Oh, wait till you see how many paint brushes I brought.

They're kind of hidden back here, but look, do you think I have enough choices?

Oh my goodness, Mrs. Readwright.

What do you think you're gonna be doing?

Painting the world?

Let me move some of these things over.

Now, boys and girls, I wanted to use a pencil first because I want to make sure that I have my oval, my neck and my shoulders just like this picture of Vincent van Gogh.

I don't want to just kind of start painting, it's hard to do that when you're doing a painting unless it's an abstract and it's not trying to look like something or someone.

So, just using a pencil I can do his oval head.

Remember, I told you make it big as your hand, which I have done.

I will do a shorter neck because it looks like his jacket is kind of up by his neck.

And then it has his jacket collar is just a V, so you can make yours have a V or not.

You can put any kind of clothes, it doesn't have to be like this same picture because maybe you don't want to make it have this kind of outfit on and that's okay, because guess who's artwork it is?

It's yours, that's right.

So I'm going to make his shoulder go down and his shoulder go down and I'll show you what I've done so far.

I hope it shows up because a pencil, no, maybe not.

A pencil doesn't show up very much.

Now, I'm gonna make a little M up here like his hairline is.

I'm going to go down with his nose and make it longer.

I'm doing two almond eyes.

I'm painting over all of my pencil marks, don't you worry, and I'm gonna give him, maybe I want him to have a mustache and a beard.

I have to make sure he has ears otherwise it makes him look like his hair is just not floating around on the sky.

All right.

Now, are you able to see it or is it too bright white?

I can't tell.

All right.

I'm just going to bring my paints down here and use my picture of Vincent van Gogh as my inspiration.

I took home some food from the restaurant and it gave it to me with a black container and a clear lid, and this is so nice to use as a palette because I can show you as I mix my colors.

So I'm gonna start out with a little brush and I am going to do his jacket first.

So I'm going to put a little bit of white in the middle and bring in some of the dark blue and do this so that he has some shadowy things I can add and use that color, and I might need more than that but that's okay, but I'm gonna start out by making his jacket and on the sleeve and his shoulder go down.

And you know that when you're painting, if you go one direction it's easier to make it look neat, if you follow the line that you did with your pencil and make it go down.

Now his clothing and his face, I'm going to just do as regular painting but the background is where I'm going to do his swirling because that's kind of what Vincent van Gogh did and that's the part I thought was gonna be fun.

Now that was his jacket on that side.

I'm gonna mix up paint so that it kind of makes a different color, so when I go to paint it you can see which part was the collar and which part was the sleeve and which part is the body of the jacket.

So I'm painting this and getting paint on my little table which, if you cover your place with newspaper it's much smarter to do that.

Now, to make the collar I'm gonna put a little bit of my black over here and mix some blue in so it's a little darker, so when I go to do the collar you'll see where the collar ended and the jacket body began, so I'm outlining it.

I'll turn it to you and let you see.

You can see where I outlined the jacket lapel, is what it's called on a jacket.

Both men and women's jackets have something called a lapel and sometimes people think because only men wear suits, but it's not so, women wear suits too.

And I'm just doing a little outline so you can see where the jacket opens and he has a shirt underneath.

So I'm doing it a little darker there, like an outline, and I can outline the back of him too and bring it up to that part too.

Now I can fill it in with the blue and you'll see where the edges are because otherwise it would just look like a blue blob, I think, if I just kept painting without any outline.

Do you have to?

No.

If you think yours looks good without outlining it then do it, my friends.

'Cause does yours have to look like mine?

Absolutely not.

Sometimes, when I was teaching art in art school the children would say, but Ms. Readwright, mine doesn't look like yours.

And I'd say, thank goodness.

Who wants to go into a classroom or into a place and see every single artwork look the same?

You'd just say, well, I could have just looked at that one and gone home, because everybody else's looks the same.

So when you're doing projects you can say, I'd like to do mine with warm colors.

I see that you did yours with cool colors, may I do warm?

And whoever your teacher is, maybe they'll say yes, maybe they'll say, oh, do that at home, we're all doing whatever.

'Cause we don't know what the teacher has planned.

She might say, oh no, today is all about cool 'cause it's getting close to winter or whatever her reason is, but make sure that when you're doing your art you say, oh, may I just do my own?

'Cause sometimes teachers like to make the circle for you or give you a pattern for something and you can say, really, I'm really good at this.

I'd like to do it myself, and maybe they'll say, okay.

"Cause that's the way I do it.

Maybe they'll want to do it just like Ms. Readwright.

They'll say, oh, that's how Ms. Readwright did it on TV, maybe we'll do that.

So, I'm getting my jacket painted in here.

I think, boys and girls, before I start the face I think I'm going to start doing the swirls 'cause for me, that's where the fun begins.

So, let me do this.

And you know, you make little piles.

You'll see in my palette, I have that light blue there.

I'm gonna mix some up with the turquoise and put that over there, put some of that in there and some I'll leave it's true hue, what came right out of the bottle.

It's really unusual for me to use the color straight out of the bottle because I really, really like to be a little different, and you might have noticed that.

I do things a little differently.

Now when I'm doing my background, I could just do this.

Because he did short strokes, I'll do my short strokes around, and he often did a spiral, so I'll do that, and there's one spiral.

I'll do a little darker one next to it so you can see the difference between the spirals and going around in a circle.

And I might mix up a little more here with that light blue, or maybe I'll do a little bit dark with the leftover from the outline of the jacket.

'Cause, oh, it looks a little gray and kind of stormy colored.

Oh, it is turning out grayish.

That will be pretty, maybe I'll put that next to his jacket and just make some short strokes.

I'm doing short strokes.

Some of my short strokes are going to go in swirls, some of my short strokes will go into spirals and if that's how you want to do it, I think you're going to like how it looks.

I'm gonna put another color next to it so it's not all that gray stormy color.

And now that I have this whole palette, I can keep going in with a different color each time if I want.

Follow it on the inside too.

I might get a different brush, I'm gonna set this one down and get a skinnier one.

And you can see that I'm going to use a little bit of the regular blue and just put some this way.

Maybe a little bit of the blue with some white next to his neck and his head.

And the angle of my paper, I hope you can see 'cause I'm trying to make it so that you can see it at the same time I can see it.

I'll get this light blue.

Do you remember when we were doing, oh, the whole study where we did a snowman?

Different artists, the way they painted snowmen?

And Vincent van Gogh's snowman was one of my favorites because this swirly part is so fun to do.

And I could, instead of doing short strokes like he did, I could just do this and paint it and just follow it around and make the spiral that way.

It's easier to see the swirls but it's not very Vincent van Gogh-ish by doing long strokes, I'm doing short strokes.

But I like that combination, boys and girls, if you want to give that a try, is how I did that swirl with a solid line then followed on the inside with the dashes of lines.

The small strokes like Vincent van Gogh's technique, if I do this, and you know who else did spirals like this?

Do you remember the man who used the gold paint?

Gustav Klimt.

He was one who did lots of spirals in his work too, with the gold paint and going around and making it go beside his trees, his tree of life.

I can get inside there or on the outside.

How are you liking your swirls?

Are you doing it like I am?

Big dashes like this now?

I'm gonna do one over here and do first the solid and then I'll go back in with the dotted line.

That, I think, really shows up better.

And it doesn't always have to start on the edge of your paper, it can come in from the side or in with the angle.

There, I could do that one.

I can get some more white mixed in with that one.

It's kind of a thick paint.

You know what Vincent van Gogh also did?

He made a painting, it was called encaustic, and encaustic paint is when it's thick, super thick, so thick you couldn't even use a paint brush to apply it.

You have to do it with a knife called a pallet, and so a pallet knife and the knife you scrape it on and then you can make it stand up and swirl.

I know when I've seen his work at the museums I've wanted to touch it, but you're not allowed.

Don't do it, you can't touch the paintings.

Oftentimes, they have a barrier which is like a- Oh, they'll have a chain that's up so they say, don't go past the chain, you can't go near the artwork.

'Cause it stands up and you think, oh, I just want to feel if it feels like it looks, and there's a guard there.

And in all the Katie books, I brought a Katie and- What did I bring today?

Katie and the Starry Night.

In this book, we're not going to look inside it but I'm just going to show you, Katie and the Starry Night.

She goes to the museum and she takes people out of their pictures.

Of course, it's make-believe but she holds onto the hand of Mona Lisa at one point because Mona Lisa feels so alone at the museum and she says, come, meet the other artists that have made the other artworks, and Katie takes Mona Lisa by the hand and makes her step out of the painting and walk around the museum.

Well, she does that with the Starry Night too.

So your teacher might have this book, and Fresno Unified Schools, all their pre-K teacher teachers have this book if your teacher wants to borrow it from them, I'm sure they will share it because they will be glad to share Vincent van Gogh and the Starry Night with you.

So I'm gonna keep painting my swirls and doing this for the swirls around with a solid line and then going back with my dotted lines.

Checking this out.

Boys and girls, I'm gonna check my time and see how much more time we have because I think I better do a little bit of the face before we scoot.

Now, I want to tell you, I'm not here every single day.

There are other teachers that come 'cause you know Miss Laura comes, well, I'm doing this self portraits and portraits this week and then when I come back I'm going to start doing our elements of art.

I thought about doing more self portraits 'cause there were so many that I thought you would love to see, but I really think the elements of art, before your teachers start showing you the prints, it's nice to know about color, shape, line, all of the seven elements.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a book and an art project and teach you about the elements of art so when you go to do your projects with your teacher and when they are discussing your art together, or if you're doing it with your family and, oftentimes parents don't quite know what to ask and they'll say, what is that a picture of?

And you think, well, of course it's a portrait, but we'll do things where you can say, well, look at the colors I used, I used all cool colors, or you can teach your family all of the things that you've learned and then when they ask you questions, you say, do you want to know about the texture?

Would you like me to tell you about the pattern?

Maybe you'd like me to tell you about- And so you can open up the conversation and tell them what's important in your picture and what you want to tell about.

So, when I come back next time I'll tell you all the things that we're doing and what to bring.

Make sure you're keeping your coloring tools in a safe place and your good attitude about your art and not saying you can't do it because you absolutely can, boys and girls.

I'll tell you, this week has been so fun for me to be back and doing art with you.

I hope that the next time I come we'll have more and more people coming and I know that some people are watching the show at school because you're adding on some extra time to the end of your day, if you're at Fresno Unified, so you can watch the show and make the project maybe at the end of the day.

Boys and girls, this has been a great week.

♪ Goodbye, see you next time, everyone ♪ ♪ Goodbye, see you next time, everyone ♪ ♪ Goodbye to you, goodbye to you, goodbye to you ♪ ♪ Goodbye to me ♪ ♪ Goodbye, see you next time, everyone ♪ - Boys and girls, thank you so much for being interested artists and for doing the projects with me and having a great attitude.

See you next time.

(cheerful music)