Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Introduce The Artist Brief

30 minutes

Part B: The Artist’s Portfolio

50+ minutes

Part C: Explore, Experiment And Annotate

20 minutes

Part D: Present And Connect

5 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Introduce the artist brief

Step 1

Ask your students what they know about an artist brief and facilitate a short discussion to think about and consider the following:

What is the role of an artist?
Why might an artist receive an artist brief?

Ensure students understand that an artist brief is a written document that provides relevant information on a commissioned artwork (a paid-for artwork project requested by a customer). The brief often has a vision, direction and scope of the commission.

Step 2

Invite your students to start thinking like an artist. Ask them to imagine they have received a brief from the STOP the Coward Punch Campaign by Danny Green (a former Australian boxer and world champion). They will be expected to interpret the brief and create a portfolio where they will research, experiment with and annotate various artistic concepts to meet the brief. Explain that they will not need to create a finished artwork, but that the main purpose of this activity is to learn how to create an art portfolio.

Read the brief:

Create an art concept that explores the emotional effects that the coward’s punch can have on the victim and the victim’s family.

OR

Create an art concept that explores the emotional effects that the coward’s punch can have on the person that committed the offence and the offender’s family.

Step 3

Explain that the STOP the Coward Punch campaign aims to spread awareness about the devastating effects the coward punch has on our community and change community perceptions around this violent act.

Play this campaign video:

Coward's Punch - Perpetrator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dEVLxcJvkI

What is the coward punch? A Single unexpected blow to the head is a critical injury that
can cause immediate death.
What is their mission? To eliminate the coward punch from society and save lives in the process.
What is their intention? Remove the “king hit” term permanently and have it consistently referred to as a “coward punch” – because that is exactly what it is.
How are the victims AND the family affected by the coward’s punch?
How are the person that committed the offence AND the offender’s family impacted?

Step 4

You could help the students collate a word bank to go into their portfolio.

The word bank could include any or all of the following: culprit, offender, perpetrator, assailant, committed the act, carried out the offence, victimiser, wrong-doer, guilt, remorse, anger, frustration, depression, helplessness, ashamed, coward punch, one punch, victim, harm.

Step 5

Split students into pairs and ask each member to define a scene, sentence or image that was exceptionally strong in delivering the main message of the campaign and explain why it had an impact on them.

Step 6

Invite pairs to share their thinking with the wider class. As students are sharing their responses, write keywords on the board to deepen students’ understanding of the STOP the Coward Punch campaign.

Part B: The artist’s portfolio

Step 1

Go through the Anti-violence Artworks Presentation slides 1-4 and explain to students the importance of art portfolios:

Art portfolios help artists unpack their creativity and emotions. They are a vital element of making art and can help an artist realise their full potential through experimentation and reflection.

Artists use portfolios as a visual diary that demonstrates the progression in their thinking and how their techniques develop over time through experimentation and research. Portfolios can help artists test new materials and ideas as they process what they are discovering about a topic, material or technique.

Step 2

Explain to students that they will create an art portfolio to demonstrate their own creative process as they work to build their art concept for the brief. Simple annotations will help the viewer better understand what they’re trying to achieve and how their ideas link together and are used in any final concepts.

Step 3

Show students examples of other students’ art portfolios from the Student Art Guide website (studentartguide.com/featured/top-in-world-self-portraiture).

Discuss various ways the artists have annotated their work and what you expect from your students.

For example, imagine a student has decided to repaint or create artwork for Hosier Lane. They could show the lane, describe or illustrate what they imagine the art looking like and write a brief description or annotation similar to below:

Hosier Lane (tomelbourne.com.au/hosier-lane) in Melbourne is known for its political messages and graffiti. People from all around the world walk through this lane and take photos of the walls. In my art concept, smiling and laughing people will be encouraged to walk through a dark lane painted in black (similar to Hosier Lane). The black signifies the heavy burden that family, friends and community endure after losing someone to a coward’s punch. This emptiness is a hole and a void that is difficult to repair. At the end of the lane, there will be a thin slice of red. The red can sometimes be forgotten but also carries a heavy burden. The red represents the person that committed the crime. The person is living with guilt, pain and regret every day.

Step 4

Explain that all artists conduct research and that no idea is entirely original. We are a culture built on cultures and ideas that have come before us. They will now explore some artworks that have already been created to challenge perceptions of violence.

Work through the Anti-violence Artworks Presentation slides 5-9. Encourage students to consider the materials used, the artist’s process and why the concept is successful. Invite students to consider whether any of these artworks have inspired them or planted an idea in their minds about what their art concept could be.

Step 5

Invite students to think about what type of artwork they might like to create. They should jot down their initial thoughts in their portfolio.

Who is your audience?
How will your artwork create a conversation about the negative impacts of the coward’s punch?
How will the artwork look?
What materials will you use?
What emotional response would you like to evoke from the audience?
What colours will you use?
Where will you display (gallery), present (conceptual or performance art) or feature (magazine cover) the artwork?

Explain that they may not have the answers to all of these questions right now. The process of research and experimentation will help them develop a clearer picture of their finished concept. However, it is good to have a starting point.

Part C: Explore, experiment and annotate

Note: You may want to allow several lessons for this process.

Step 1. Invite your students to gather inspiration and begin researching, sketching, trialling, cutting and painting their concepts into their artist portfolio.

Remind students that they can explore any or all of the following in their portfolio:

Message - conduct research
Artistic style - conduct research
Colours - create colour palettes
Materials - experiment
Techniques - experiment
Presentation of the final product - sketch ideas

Note: Remind students you are not expecting a completed artwork. This activity is about recording the creative process and experimenting. This can free them to develop ideas they may not necessarily be able to implement for various reasons. Some students may still wish to create their final piece, and this will take time to finesse.

Step 2

Encourage students to begin annotating any ideas or experiments in their artist portfolio, if they haven’t already.

Explain that for art portfolios to be truly valuable to both students and teachers, they need to provide insight into what students created to represent their brief and concept. Students should show their thinking and unpack their reasoning with clear statements.

Some questions that students can use as a guide might be:

How does this technique, process or image relate to the brief or the final concept?
What were/are you hoping to achieve?
How will the art create a conversation about the negative impacts of a coward’s punch?

Step 3

While students are working, experimenting and writing down their ideas, walk around the room asking questions and prompting their feedback. Some guiding questions may include:

I am interested in where you’re heading. Would you mind telling me what you’re thinking?
I can see you have your head down and have been working away. Would you like to share what thoughts are running through your head?
I can see you are thinking deeply about this. What do you think you would like to experiment with first?

Part D: Present and connect

Note: Students may decide to collate certain examples to make the finished portfolio more coherent, leaving some initial ideas out; but help them understand that often it can be very exciting to explore how vastly different their ideas may have started out and grown over time and to explain this progression in their portfolio.

Step 1

Invite students to share their portfolio with the class or one or two classmates. They can verbally explain their ideas or leave the portfolio to speak for itself.

Encourage students to ask questions, provide positive feedback and put forward suggestions for what they might include in their portfolio next time.

Reflection

Invite students to write a final reflection on the process in their portfolio using the following prompts:

Connect: How did your artistic techniques or ideas connect to what you have already used or thought about before?
Extend: How did research and experimentation extend your thinking?
Challenge: What did you find most challenging about the art brief or portfolio work? What do you still find challenging or puzzling?

Differentiated learning

Extension

Provide students with additional opportunities to extend their ideas and research how artists receive and apply for artists grants to produce their ideas.
Some students may wish to create a finished artwork based on their concept for the brief.
Students could create a community gallery displaying their portfolios or final artworks. These could be done in a gallery style, or through digital screens displayed in windows or hallways.

Provisions for Learning Support

Students can work in groups to create a joint concept.
Some students might prefer to create a digital portfolio where they can provide verbal commentary on their research, techniques, ideas and progression towards their art concept. They could even include video footage of themselves working on their artwork or initial designs.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

what did you learn about your teaching practice today?
what worked well?
what didn't work so well?
what would you share?
where to next?
how are you going to get there?

Coward Punch - Create a Concept Portfolio

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