Two-Faced Art

Two-Faced Art lesson plan

Picasso’s art career spanned many decades and included a variety of styles and influences. Create a portrait collage inspired by his Cubist era.

  • 1.

    Discuss Picasso’s art career and life. Focus on his Cubist era portrait paintings. What shapes do you see in these paintings? How are the faces portrayed?

  • 2.

    On two different pieces of construction paper, use markers to draw the faces of two different people. Use different types of lines when making the drawings. Make thick lines by drawing with the side of the marker and thin lines by drawing with the tip. Create different effects by drawing squiggly, jagged, wavy or bumpy lines with the side of the marker.

  • 3.

    Use scissors to cut out the facial features from each of the portraits. On a separate piece of construction paper, arrange some facial features from each of the portraits to make a new, combined face.

  • 4.

    Glue the features into place to create a collage. Add additional details with markers to complete the Cubist-inspired design.

Benefits

  • Students locate and identify shapes in Pablo Picasso’s cubist paintings.
  • Students draw two portraits using a variety of marker techniques while incorporating shapes as observed in Picasso’s work.
  • Students create a cubist-inspired collage.

Adaptations

  • Picasso developed the Cubist movement in the early 1900’s with Georges Barque. Look up information on Barque and his contributions to the art world.
  • Many other artists participated in the Cubist movement. Create a poster with samples from other Cubist arts.
  • Why so blue? Learn about the art and inspiration behind Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period.