Picasso Self-Portrait Project

Published: December 4, 2013

This. Is Cubism at its finest. I haven’t done many projects based on historical artists, so maybe that is something I should focus on a little more with future projects.

Picasso Cubism painting project for kids- so cool.

There’s something wonderful about kids focusing on a specific artist’s style and then replicating that feel/technique. Any time a kid can possibly absorb some history while they are doing art is powerful.

I found this project in the book Paint it! by Kathy Durkin, and had to try it. Not even because it was inspired by Picasso’s Cubist style, but because it was such a cool technique.

Essentially, you combine 3 views of your face into one and voila! Cubism.

Materials:

 

Directions:

Photograph your subject 3 times: face-forward, side view and 3/4 view. Print each view out.

printouts

 

Take a piece of tracing paper and lay it in turn over each print out, tracing over the most prominent lines from each view.

Tracing a face for Picasso Cubism painting project • Artchoo.com

 

Flip the tracing paper over and lay it on top of your watercolor paper. Press hard with your pencil while tracing over the lines. This will transfer them onto the watercolor paper. You can erase whichever bits of lines you aren’t fond of.

Transfer drawings onto another piece of paper

 

Go over the pencil lines with your black Sharpie and prepare to paint.

markering over pencil lines

 

We used watercolors, and didn’t fill in the entire face. It makes for a striking finished product to leave white areas within the face. The bits of color act as highlights to whichever parts you want to, well, highlight.

Our background was painted and lifted with paper towel wads to give it a little bit of texture.

Cubism Picasso painting project for kids- Artchoo.com

For more cool painting projects for kids, see my Pinterest painting projects for kids board.

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7 thoughts on “Picasso Self-Portrait Project”

  1. What a wonderful way for children to learn about Cubism and Picasso while exploring the concept of self. I really like how you used photography and tracing paper and then painted only parts of the face. What a nice finished work of art!

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