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Picasso Portraits

First Grade artists have been exploring the abstract work of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.  They learned that Picasso worked in a style called Cubism.  After looking at lots of cubist art pieces, our smart first graders decided that cubism is when an artist uses lots of shapes and shows details from different views in the same picture – like their practice drawings here:

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Next they discovered that when Picasso was sad, he used lots of blue paint during his “Blue Period”.  Picasso’s work changed when he became happier and he used more oranges and pinks during his “Rose Period”.

They chose their own blue or rose color period to create their Picasso portrait collages.  See more of our awesome Picassos at our Artsonia on-line gallery!

 

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Learning Goals:

I can tell two facts about Pablo Picasso; I can explain cubism; I can create a portrait in the cubist style of Pablo Picasso

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Quick! Tell Three Facts About Leonardo daVinci!

Do you know three interesting facts about Leonardo daVinci?  I’ll bet a Georgetown third grade artist can help you out!  They recently learned all about the great artist daVinci; not only did he paint the famous Mona Lisa, but he was a sculptor, inventor, musician, and mathematician.  Students examined a Mona Lisa print and discovered how daVinci was able to draw her eyes so that she seems to follow you across the room.

Third grade artists created their own Mona Lisa portraits, surrounding their portraits with drawings of inventions and notes just as Leonardo daVinci might have done.

One of my favorite parts of this project are the detailed inventions and notes!

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See more Mona Lisa portraits at our on-line gallery ARTSONIA!

I CAN Goals:

I can tell three facts about Leonardo daVinci.

I can draw a realistic portrait of the Mona Lisa.

I can show how to draw the famous Mona Lisa eyes.

 

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Picasso Portraits

First grade artists learned about the art of Pablo Picasso and had fun exploring shapes as they painted these fun portraits.  They also got a chance to demonstrate their understanding of warm and cool colors as they painted.

We did this project a couple of years ago – see it here – but this year my kiddos painted the black lines instead of using black oil pastels; the lines look much nicer on this project.  We also added white printed “snow” for background interest.

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Action Jackson Portraits

Third grade artists have been learning about the abstract work of “Action Jackson” Pollock.  We began by creating a background that resembled Jackson’s “thrown paint” pieces.  Our backgrounds were made by dipping string in paint and tapping the gooey string on the paper.  Lots of fun!

Action Jackson at work

Preparing the background for printing

Printing with string

Our portraits of Action Jackson are my third grader’s first attempt at drawing a realistic portrait, using drawing pencils and value shading with blending stumps.  My kiddos loved using the blending stumps and enjoyed creating a REAL portrait.

Completed  Action Jackson Pollock portraits.

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Salvador Dali Portraits

Fifth Graders are finishing up a great Salvador Dali project.  They loved learning about the Surrealists and talking about their own “surreal” dreams, and found Dali’s attention-grabbing moustache very hilarious.  After creating their portraits, they chose their own Dali-inspired backgrounds and pipe-cleaner moustache designs.

Dali’s Many Moustaches

This project is inspired by Anne at Useyourcoloredpencils@blogspot.com  .  Thanks, Anne,  for an awesome lesson idea – my kids loved it!