Cubist Drawings

This is a fun Cubism lesson that I modified from the lesson found on The Art Fairy's blog.

My Grade 9 students chose their own subject matter and used colored pencils for the media. First, we looked at examples of Analytical Cubism by Picasso and discussed his use of fracturing and gradations of colour from light to dark.



Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Wilhelm Uhde, 1910



Students started by drawing a large, fairly simple image in the center of their paper.

Then they cut out a simple shape, which may or may not be somehow related to their chosen subject,

out of cardstock.

They traced this shape all over their design in order to break-up or 'fracture' the image.

Below you can see this student used a skull for her main subject, and a bone shape to break it up.

Then, using coloured pencils, students chose their colours and practiced creating gradations from light to dark- simply vary the pressure of the coloured pencil.

Testing colours out to see which look good together.

Then start colouring each section- change colours when you encounter a line.

This takes time and patience but the results are well worth it.

Ta da!