Each child should be requested to think about their own family under the following headings:

• How many people are in the family?
• How many males and females are in the family?
• Who is the tallest / shortest in the family?
• What type of clothes does each family member prefer?
• What colour hair does each family member etc.?

Consider the following points when the rough drawing has been completed:

• What is the best way to orient your drawing page, landscape or portrait?
• How are you going to place all the members of the family on the page? Are they all going to be standing, sitting? Are some going to be in front of others? How are you going to show this?
• Where are you going to place your family? What background will you draw?
• What details will you include? Clothes / Hair / Family pets / etc.
• Will you do a formal portrait or an informal one? E.g. will your family be drawn doing some activity or will you draw them as they might pose for a photograph?

Children are then allowed to choose their favourite drawing tool and type/colour of paper on which to draw.
Encourage them to draw slowly, to think carefully as they draw and to include as much detail as possible.

Follow up.

Choose your favourite drawing media and do a portrait of one member of your family.
Write a description of this person to accompany your drawing.

Use your drawing as a basis for a family portrait using other art media; e.g. paints, fabrics or clay.
Make a collection of family portraits from posters, postcards, magazines, books, photographs, etc. Display them or make a book with them. Select one family, do a drawing and write about it.
Find a painting/drawing of a family group by a famous artist of the past. Discuss how you think the lives of the family members in the piece of art might have been very different than your own. Do a drawing about this family e.g. draw the house you think they might have lived in.