Cubist self- portraits: Pablo Picasso

2nd graders have been introduced to the artist, Pablo Picasso. Through a powerpoint presentation, we have studied the life and artwork of one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century. The students were then introduced to Cubism, the art movement in which Picasso was one of the creators. Cubism is the art technique of creating images that have been rearranged into geometric shapes to create an abstract artwork. The students discussed what they thought  Cubism was and we revisited how this type of abstract was different from the abstract artwork that other artists create, like Piet Mondrain. (whose artwork they studied last year.) Picasso created representational abstract which just means we know what the image is but still, it doesn't look like real life. Non-representational artwork like that of Piet Mondrain is a compilation of just colors, shapes and lines and doesn't resemble anything is real life. The students were then given a piece of paper and with first a pencil, were guided through a drawing of how to create a portrait. This is a self-portrait, so they were able to make changes to their portraits according to how they look. The students were given the option of different ways of drawing facial features (frontal nose, side nose, open mouth, closed mouth etc.) and created somewhat of an abstract portrait. When their drawings are finalized, the students will outline their drawings in black sharpie and color them in using oil pastels with bright colors, not natural to normal colors.(Picasso often used bright colors and hard black lines in his portraits.) They will then paint their backgrounds with watercolor paints. Once their portraits are complete, they will cut them up into 4 equal parts and rearrange them onto another piece of paper. Picasso was able to do this in his head without cutting while he painted a portrait of someone believe it or not! The result will be a bright colored, Picasso inspired, self portrait! Stay tuned for images of their process...

Learning objectives: Art History, Drawing, painting, collage, guided drawing.

ART WORDS:
Cubism: the art technique of creating images that have been rearranged into geometric shapes to create an abstract artwork.
Non-representational (abstract): artwork that completely consists of only line shapes and colors and resembles nothing of real life.
Representational (abstract): we know what the image is but it is distorted or created with colors that are not like real life. (i.e. a portrait of someone with purple skin.)