Chalice Arts UK Limited
Unit 2
Friendship
Inspired by the Story of
the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
by
Stephen Bruce
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© Stephen Bruce 2015
General IntroductionThis unit forms part of a scheme of work for art designed to
support schools wanting to develop art lessons based on the
National Societies 15 Christian values that many Church of
England Schools have adopted.
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This scheme of work provides an opportunity for
pupils to engage in making art and at the same time
focuses on teaching and reinforcing the core
Christian values in a visual way.
The units in this scheme have been written by
Stephen Bruce at Chalice Arts UK. Stephen is a art
educational consultant and former head teacher.
Chalice Arts UK provides a variety of art projects for schools. More
information about the author and his work can be found at:
www.chaliceartsuk.co.uk
Displaying pupils artwork linked to the core values is a very
powerful way for schools to ensure they are prominent and
in constant focus.
More information about the National Societies values for
schools can be found at the following website:
http://www.christianvalues4schools.co.uk
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Friendship
The Bible has many sayings about friendship:
‘A friend loves at all times.’ (Proverbs 17:17)
Friends are not afraid to tell each other the truth and a friend’s
loving criticism is worth more than the empty compliments of
someone who does not really care for you.
‘Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies
kisses.’ (Proverbs 27:6)
‘if one falls down, a friend can lift him up’. (Ecclesiastes 4:10)
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Trust, feeling comfortable in each other’s company, being able
to share joys and sorrows are all features of friendship and
these are things of immense value.
True friendship enables each person to grow and ensures that
the unique individuality of each person is recognised. All this
echoes the value placed by God on the preciousness of each
person.
Hymns like ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ point to a
relationship that is at the heart of Christian believing. Knowing
that God is our friend is to recover something of the acceptance
and close companionship that people of all ages need and
crave.
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The Selfish Giant was a selfish person but he learnt how to be
a good friend.
He learnt the qualities of friendship based on loving one
another, trust, caring, sharing, kindness and thinking of others
before ourselves.
7A painting by Stephen Bruce
inspired by the Selfish Giant.
Some questions to ask children:
• Why is the giants face blue?
• Why is one side of his face
turning pink and yellow?
• Why is there snow in the
garden?
• Why are the trees bare?
• Why can you see green under
the snow?
• Why is the giant smiling?• Why does the giant look like
he is crying and smiling?
This guidance focuses on frontal
portraits.Making a drawing of a face can
broken down into small steps.
Drawing a head shape.Draw an oval slightly wider at the
top than bottom. This is the basic
head shape. (Men usually have a
more defined jaw line but for thebasic principle an oval a good
start).
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How to teach portraits
A series of slides demonstrating how to draw portraits
Marking out key guidelinesDraw a light vertical line down the
centre, then draw a horizontal line
halfway between the top andbottom of the oval. This line will
give you the eye positions.
Divide the remaining space belowin half. This will be for the base of
the average-nose.
Divide the space below that into
thirds. The mouth will be at the top
of those thirds, the rest will be the
chin.
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Drawing eyesThe basic eye shape is an almond
shape with a slight downward point
near the nose. The space between
the eyes is one eye length. Five eyelengths fit across the average face.
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Drawing the noseHalf way between the eye line and
bottom of the face is the bottom of
the nose line. The basic nose shapeis a slightly flattened U shape and a
letter C shape and a backwards
letter C shape.
The width of the nose extends a little
beyond the corners of the eyes.
Noses do vary a lot between
individual so this is just a guide.
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Drawing the earsThe ears are drawn between the
eye line and the nose line and
consist of a letter C shape or
backward C shape.
Ears are wider at the top and come
in towards the face at the lobe.
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Drawing the mouthThe mouth line is either drawn a
third of the way down from the
nose line to the chin or half way
from the nose to the chin. I have
chosen to use a third of the way
down. This means the centre line
between the lips sits on the third
line with the top lip above and the
bottom lip below touching the half
way line approximately.
The corners of the mouth line upapproximately with the pupils of
the eye.
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Drawing the neck and hairlineThe neck is usually as wide as the
jaw line (approximately the
bottom lip line).
The hair line is approximately one
quarter or one third from top of
the head to the eye line. The hair
itself usually extends above the
top of the head depending on
hairstyle.
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Activity 1: Practice marking
out the guidelines.
Activity 2: Use a separate
piece of paper and practice
drawing eyes, noses, ears and
mouths
Activity 3: Put the features on
a face.
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Art Activity Option 1 – Painting portraits of the Selfish
Giant
Example Learning Objectives
• To develop a deeper understanding of the school value Friendship
through linking it to art.
• To use story and a painting as inspiration to make their own paintings of a
giant.
• To understand the basic composition of a portrait and to be introduced
to acrylic paint and colour missing skills.
Resources
• Power point and illustrated versions of the Selfish Giant story.
• Canvas boards or water colour paper, acrylic paints/ or other paints, size
4 brushes, palettes, water pots, table coverings, art aprons, pencils.
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Key Points of the Teaching Sequence
• Children should be familiar with the story of the Selfish Giant and have
discussed the qualities of friendship.
• Discuss the painting by Stephen Bruce. Ask some of the questions
suggested on slide 7 to explore the symbolism within the painting.
• Explain the activity – the children are going to make a painted portrait of
the Selfish Giant to help remember the qualities of a good friend.
• Model drawing a face using the guidance provided.
• Children can practice in sketch books or on paper or go straight to their
canvas board and sketch a portrait of the selfish giant. Have examples
from children’s books available to look at and the painting by Stephen
Bruce.
• Model using acrylic paint and the children can then begin to paint in an
imaginative way to interpret the Selfish Giant and his garden changing
from winter to Spring.
You also might consider using sketch books to work out initial ideas using
pencil drawing and also for making notes about portraits, practicing
drawing facial features and about the properties and safe use of acrylic
paint and colour mixing examples.
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Example of children’s
work – Year 4 St
Peter’s CE Primary
School Hertfordshire
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Example of children’s work – Year 4 St Peter’s CE Primary
School Hertfordshire20
Example of children’s work
– Year 2 St Peter’s CE
Primary School
Hertfordshire
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Example of children’s work – Year 2 St Peter’s CE Primary
School Hertfordshire22