Surreal Ideas Today

Overview

Students explore surrealism by comparing two artworks: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali and The Son of Man by René Magritte. They investigate how artists use line, shape and tone to represent subject matter and express ideas about the world, then create a short surreal artwork inspired by these techniques.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• WALT explore surrealism by observing and describing key features in Dali’s and Magritte’s artworks.
• WALT represent subject matter and ideas using line, shape and tone.
• WALT describe how artists use visual art elements to communicate meaning to audiences.

Success criteria

Students can:

• Identify at least two differences and two similarities between the artworks (subject and mood).
• Explain how line, shape and tone are used to create an idea (e.g. dreamlike, strange, unsettling).
• Use line, shape and tone intentionally in a small artwork to communicate a surreal idea.

Curriculum links

• Visual Arts — CA2-VIS-01: Students make artworks to represent subject matter and ideas, and describe how artists convey ideas to audiences through artworks.
• Visual Arts — Making/Representing: Using line, shape and tone to represent ideas and subject matter.
• Visual Arts — Appreciating: Describing ways artworks convey ideas through visual elements.

Lesson structure (total minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Engage (surreal look). Teacher displays one image from each artwork and asks: “What feels familiar and what feels impossible?” Students share quick “gallery talk” ideas in pairs.

2. 5–15 min · Compare artworks (observe). Teacher guides observation with a simple chart: subject matter, shapes, lines, tones, and mood/idea. Students complete the first column for each artwork using key words (e.g. melting, floating, eye, hat, smooth, dark, light).

3. 15–25 min · Mini-teach: line, shape, tone in surrealism. Teacher demonstrates three quick drawing techniques on the board:

• Line: bold/curved/dashed for emotion
• Shape: warped objects, overlapping forms, unusual proportions
• Tone: light to dark shading for depth and mood Students practise each technique in the air or on scrap paper for 30–40 seconds each.

4. 25–40 min · Plan a surreal artwork (think). Students choose one “impossible idea” to represent (teacher prompts: time melting, a face without a body, a floating object, an ordinary object behaving strangely). They sketch a thumbnail including: 1 surreal subject, 2 supporting shapes, and 3 tone areas.

5. 40–55 min · Create (make). Students draw and shade their final A5/A4 artwork using pencils/charcoal or pre-made tone options (soft pencil, blending stump if available). Teacher circulates, prompting: “Where is your darkest tone? What does that part communicate?”

6. 55–60 min · Share and reflect (exit ticket). Students do a 30-second “author statement” to a partner: “My artwork shows…, and I used line/shape/tone to show…” Teacher collects one written or spoken exit response: one technique they used well and one thing they’d improve next time.

Resources

• Printed images of The Persistence of Memory and The Son of Man (A4)
• Art paper (A5 or A4), pencils (HB–2B) and rubbers
• Optional: black fineliner for stronger lines
• Tone tools: blending stumps, tissues, or soft graphite
• Drawing planning sheet with the sentence starters:
• “In my artwork, I show…”
• “I used line/shape/tone to…”
• EALD support card with key word bank (e.g. line, curve, angle, shape, shadow, dark, light, idea, audience, surreal)

Assessment

• Formative teacher checks during observation and creation: accurate use of line/shape/tone language and evidence of intent (not just copying).
• Checkpoint at 40 minutes: thumbnail includes surreal subject + at least three tone areas.
• Exit ticket (last 5 minutes): identify one element used and the idea it communicates.

Differentiation

• EALD support: sentence starters, word bank, and visual examples showing each element (line/shape/tone) in simple annotated drawings.
• Scaffold planning for all: provide a mini template (oval/rounded shapes, dividing lines, 3-tone boxes: light/medium/dark) so students can structure their surreal idea.
• Additional support: offer pre-drawn “starting shapes” (e.g. hat shape, face outline, melting clock blobs) for students who need reduced drawing load.
• Extension for advanced learners: require a written “audience interpretation” of one line/shape/tone choice (“Someone might think…, because…”), and include an extra surreal element (e.g. multiple perspectives or a second impossible scene).
• SEN considerations: allow choices of media (crayons for tone blocks, thicker marker lines), and reduce time pressure with a clear step-by-step plan.

Exit ticket prompts (choose one)

• “I used tone by making the darkest part… so my audience may feel…”
• “My artwork represents the idea of… using shape/line/tone because…”