Picasso Portraits

Third Grade Art Lesson
4 Class Periods

Picasso Portraits, Third Grade Art Lesson


About the Artist Studied: 

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was born in Malaga, Spain.  He learned how to paint and draw from his dad who was an art teacher.  He studied art in Madrid and Paris when he was only 16 years old.

Pablo Picasso

Picasso has created over 50,000 pieces of artwork during his life time.  Some of which are the most expensive pieces in the world. 

Dora Maar au Chat by Picasso sold for a record breaking $104 million dollars May of 2004.

Picasso is the co-founder of a style of art called Cubism.  Cubist artists wanted to show all sides of an object in the same picture.  They would do this by twisting the perspective of the object through use of geometric shapes and abstraction.

As a class we looked closely at Picasso's Cubist portraits, but it was noted that Cubism was not the only style Picasso could paint.  His large bodies of work are divided into four categories: Blue Period (1901-1904), Rose Period (1905-1907), African-Influenced (1908-1909) and Cubism (1909-1919).  As important as Cubism is to art history, I wanted the students to realize that Picasso could also paint very realistic portraits, too.

Portrait of Picasso's Mother by Pablo Picasso.
 

Day 1

• Student's reviewed the life of artist Pablo Picasso (student's learned briefly about this artist in kindergarten). Together as a class we examined more specifically his cubist portraits.
• Together as a class we planned out a cubist portrait by drawing a frontal and profile view of a face on a paper bag.

Day 2

• Using tempera paints, students painted the front side of the paper bag.

Day 3

• Student continued to paint paper bag, this time completing the back and sides of bag.

Student working on painting the sides of their Picasso portrait.

Day 4

• Students used oil pastels to pop out details on their portraits.

Examples of Student Work

 

 

 

 

Burlap Shell Painting

Fifth Grade Art Lesson
5 Class Periods

Burlap Shell Painting, Fifth Grade Art Lesson

Ocean Shell



I found a great big shell one day.

Upon the ocean floor.

I held it close up to my ear.

I heard the ocean roar!

 

I found a tiny shell one day.

Upon on the ocean sand.

The waves had worn it nice and smooth.

It felt nice in my hand.

Day 1

• Students completed an observational drawing of a shell. 

Day 2

• Students taped a piece of burlap to a drawing board.
• The observational drawing of the shell from the class before was transfered to the piece of burlap.

Day 3

• Color theory was reviewed with students.  Proper mixing of tints and shades was reviewed and practiced.
• Students painted their shell using a monochromatic color scheme.  Students were asked to think about tints and shades as they painted.

Day 4

• Burlap paintings were taken off drawing board and mounted to a piece of black tagboard. 
• Students used paint chips in a complementary color scheme to create the background for the composition.

Day 5

• Students used the final class period to put finishing touches on the shell.   Students were asked to outline the shell carefully with black paint.
• Students filled out a self-evaluation on their project.  Students were asked to reflect on use of composition, craftsmanship, effort, use of class time, and overall final appearance of project.

Student Examples:

 

 

 

 

 

Owl Resist

Kindergarten Art Lesson

2 Class Periods

Owl Resist, Kindergarten Art Lesson

The Wise Owl

The wise old owl
Sat in an oak.
The more he saw,
The less he spoke.
The less he spoke,
The more he heard.
Why can't we be like
That wise old bird?

Day 1

• As a class we read the story The Sleepy Owl by Marcus Pfister. We discussed the body parts found on an owl: claws, ears, beak, wings, etc.
• Using follow along demonstration students created an owl drawing.  Shapes were identified and reviewed as they were drawn on the paper.

Day 2

• Students used oil pastels to color in their owls.  Students were encouraged to use the color white.
• After coloring was completed, a black oil pastel was used to outline the owl.
• Students used black tempera paint to paint over the composition.  The oil pastels repelled the water leaving the resist.

Kindergarten student painting owl composition black.

Student Examples