Key Stage 2 - Science

Link Science with aspects of portraiture through looking at different aspects of materials and investigating how items we take for granted today, such as paint, were made in pre-industrial Britain.

Fabric of Life

Explore how natural fabrics such as wool, silk and linen were represented in portraiture, through handling sessions with fabric samples, comparisons between different textures in portraits, and drawings of fabrics from a portrait of the pupil’s choice.

• 90 minutes
• One class, maximum 30 pupils

Making Colour

Find out how oil paint was made from minerals and other strange substances such as ground up Egyptian mummies and beetles’ blood, through a range of activities including matching shades of colour and close observational artwork.

• 90 minutes
• One class, maximum 30 pupils
• Follow-up webquest: KS2 Art Tudor Artist’s Apprentice this one should be finished very soon – just being edited



Catherine Parr
attributed to Master John
circa 1545
NPG 4451