As the grade 8’s continue their exploration of art history, they have recently learned about Cubism and the work of Picasso. They explored the roots of Cubism, a movement from the early 1900s that wanted to reflect the struggle of modern life and often did this in a very abstract way. They discovered the work of Picasso, who painted many portraits that displayed this abstract style but with a few key characteristics. His portraits often used geometric shapes, rearranged facial elements, showed a “broken mirror effect” (which made the portrait look like it was in fragments), and often painted the portrait from more than one perspective.
Students first dove into these characteristics through a quick “Roll-a-Picasso” activity where, based on the roll of a dice, they were told which facial element to put where and how to design the portrait. The result was a quick rendition of a Picasso portrait that gave them some exposure to the abstract style of his work and introduced them to the key characteristics.
Afterwards, students had to apply this knowledge in a more creative way. They were tasked with choosing a superhero or cartoon character and portraying this character using at least two of the Picasso portrait characteristics that were listed above. They were able to look at a reference photo of their chosen character but had to decide how to replicate the character, draw it themselves, and then used oil pastels and techniques previously learned to add colour and depth to their art. The students did a fantastic job and the end result was a very creative display of Picasso-inspired characters!
