Create a royal portrait

Create a portrait of King Charles III using reused and recycled material

There is a long tradition of portraits of the reigning monarch being painted and displayed in the royal palaces. They are also seen on a daily basis, with the reigning monarch being portrayed on stamps and currency.

King Charles III is known for his commitment to environmental issues and passion for a greener world and this project also links into sustainability as the portrait will be made by using reused and recycled materials and develops knowledge and skills in Design & Technology, Maths and Art. This project allows schools to decide on materials and scale depending on resources and facilities.

The teacher will first explain what a portrait is and why kings and queens have them painted, drawn or photographed using examples from the presentation. The learners will then take some time to study their own faces using a mirror, looking closely at facial features and discussing which reused or recycled materials could be suitable for different features, colours and textures, thinking about how they can make a portrait. Learners will then design and make their royal portraits, with the option to scale up as a class to create a large-scale portrait at the end if desired.

This activity can be simplified (particularly for less able students) by providing a template with outlines of the head and main features to guide learners where to place materials.

As an extension students could add a background to the portrait and/or add additional features such as King Charles III name, the things he likes or an environmental message. Teachers could also fly a drone over the large scale portrait to get an image of it that can be shared with the school in an assembly or parent event.

Tools/resources required

Mirrors
Paper and card, A4 squared paper
Drawing instruments, such as pencils, colouring pencils, pens and rulers
Scissors
Glue sticks
Portrait template (optional, for differentiation)
A range of reused and recycled materials.
For extension activities: chalk or masking tape, a drone
Example portraits (if available)

The engineering context
All designers and engineers need to be able to produce ideas related to certain themes and follow a design brief. This ensures that the products they design will meet the needs of the end users, customers or clients.

Suggested learning outcomes
By the end of this free resource students will be able to design from a brief; gather suitable materials and explore how they might be used to create a collage portrait; and create a visual outcome using recycled and reused materials.

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

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