5th Grade Picasso Cubism Portraits

5th Graders are learning about the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso.  They are learning about the art style Cubism, invented by Picasso.  Students made their own cubist portraits in the style of Picasso.  Students paired up, one student posed while the other drew their partner and then they switched.  The student posing was to have two different poses.  The student drawing drew both poses and combined them to create one portrait.  

Here are the important terms we focused on when making this project.

Portrait:  The drawing or painting of person.

Geometric Shapes: Precise forms such as squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles.

Cubism: An artistic style, that describes painting of a person, place or thing that are made of geometric shapes and many different perspectives.

Here are some of Picasso's artwork we looked at in creating these portraits:

      

 

  

We also discussed warm and cool colors.

Warm colors are your reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, and browns. (think of the sun)

Cool colors are your greens, blues, and purples. (think of water or a winter's day)

Students were asked to use warm colors on one side of the face and cool colors on the other side of the face.  We used oil pastel to add color and practiced blending techniques.

Teacher Example

Student Examples