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Objective:
Creating ways to think outside of the box while learning about Pablo Picasso and Cubism
Skill Development: Art
Minimum Age: Kindergarten
Messiness: Medium
Materials
- White Mixed Media paper - 2 pieces
- Pencil
- Markers
- Oil Pastels: white
- Liquid Watercolor: blue
- Construction paper: brown, black
- Epsom Salt
- Cardboard squares
Books to Read
- If Picasso Painted a Snowman by Amy Newbold
*Reading enhancing the learning environment
All of these photos below were created by a class of First Graders.
Step 1:
Using a white oil pastel, draw snowflakes on the white mixed media paper in Portrait format. You may also draw in the snowy hills but remember in Cubism, the lines tend to be sharp not wavy.
Step 2:
Then using blue liquid watercolor, paint your entire picture.
Step 3:
Before your paint dries, sprinkle salt on your artwork. Watch how it changes the texture as the salt reacts with the watercolor. Table salt works just fine but Epsom salt creates more of a reaction.
Step 4:
Set aside your watercolor background and begin making your Cubism snowman. Using another sheet of mixed media paper, draw three squares or rectangles: One for the Head, one for the Torso, and one for the Lower Body. In this example the three squares are different sizes.
Step 5:
In Cubism, objects were drawn was using geometric shapes like square, rectangle, triangle, semicircle, kite, hexagon. On the Head, draw a line down the center and angle the nose to one side. Picasso often drew faces with one half looking at you, while the other half was looking off to the side. (profile view)
Add eyes and a mouth. It’s encouraged to have each half look different from one another.
Step 6:
Color your face with markers and cut out your snowman
Step 7:
Using brown construction paper, create stick arms for your snowman. I encouraged kids to create the arms however they would like. If it was challenging to cut out arms with three sticks, I mentioned that could just cut out long rectangles.
Some children even made heart shaped arms. I love their creativity and uniqueness.
Glue the arms to the backside of the snowman
Step 8:
Glue precut cardboard squares to the backside of your snowman’s body. You can use one, two, or even three pieces to make your snowman more 3 dimensional.
Glue object on your watercolor paper and now you know what it might look like if Picasso had created a snowman.
Click here for the entire curriculum {link is through TPT}:
Learning plan, Script to use when teaching this to your group of children, along with Art History printout.
