Picasso-Style Cubist Portraits

This is another Picasso inspired project that my Grade 5's were quite reluctant about- not many modern art fans in that class! We completed the "Le Coq" rooster project a while back and they disliked it, called it the 'Ugly Chicken" project... Again, they weren't a fan of Picasso's Cubist portraits and cringed and said how weird they all looked when I showed them a slideshow of his work to start off the lesson. C'est La Vie!!

Nonetheless, I think they did a wonderful job with the project! I told them to make their portraits as weird and strange and unusual as possible- different sized eyes looking in different directions, splitting up the face, crazy hair, unusual colours etc. 

They drew these in pencil on black construction paper first, then coloured them in with oil pastels. Outlining with a thick line of black oil pastel was the finishing touch.

Daffodil Paintings

Even though Spring is nowhere to be found where I live, I figured I'd post these charming daffodil paintings my Grade 3's made last Spring to get me in the mood.

I demonstrated how to draw one daffodil and then how to multiply them to create a bouquet in a vase. I gave my students the choice of drawing simply one (easier) and challenging my stronger students to draw a bouquet. They drew these in pencil on large heavy white paper.

Then they outlined them in Sharpie.

Finally, they painted these using watercolours. A simple two day project :)

Some of the Grade 3 finished paintings:

Black Glue Line African Animals Watercolour

I posted about this lesson a few years ago (see original post HERE) and had my Grade 8's recently finish it again. It's one of my all time favourite lessons: I love the combination of the dramatic black line contrasted with the loose fluidity of the liquid watercolours. 

So students start by choosing the face of an African animal of their choice. They draw this on heavy white paper focusing on line (no shading). Then, they trace over all the lines using a bamboo stick and black glue (white glue mixed with India ink). This year some students- gasp- revolted- against the bamboo stick and begged me to let them use a Sharpie. Ugh- I gave in but normally I don't. I must have been tired that day, haha.

 

I store my black glue in a plastic container with a lid and then put it into smaller 

containers for the kids to use.

I store my liquid watercolours in little sauce/condiment ups with lids. It works pretty good but some of them get stiiiinky by the end of the year...

Once the black glue has dried, they wet the entire paper and they just randomly lay down a mixture of liquid watercolours. They know that analogous colours work well together. 

Some Grade 8 results:

Torn Paper Insect Collage

If you're looking for a lesson to use up alot of the scrap paper you've accumulated throughout the year, look no further! I found this lesson HERE on the Dickblick website- it has some amazing lesson plans. I did this project with Grade 3, but in future years I think I'll try it with Grade 4 because I wasn't thrilled with the outcomes and quite a few kids struggled with the tearing part and adding more details part.

Below you can see my scrap paper hoarding box- ugh. It usually ends up with garbage in it and tiny pieces of paper even though I tell kids it has to be good paper at least as big as their open palm. 

Anyway, the kids love rummaging though it to see what treasures they might find. 

We started off by reviewing the parts of an insect. I have handouts and book of insects to help them with their ideas. I show them how to find the grain of the paper as well as how to tear an oval and a circle. I give them each a large sheet of black construction paper 12 x 18". They start by ripping the main body, then add the thorax and head and smaller details such as patterns, eyes, antennae, wings, etc. They had to tear everything but then at the end I let them cut the legs with scissors as it became too much of a struggle for them to tear decent straight lines.

Some Grade 3 results: