4th Grade Cubism Inspired Drawings

While I LOVE this project (and the students seem to as well) it isn't by any means a quick one! Believe it or not, this was the project we started the year with for 4th grade and only really finished it two classes ago...All in all with intro, computer lab time for images, and the extension it took EIGHT class periods. But, I don't think I had any student complaints...and you will see why! I actually even had kids asking to take it home to work on!

Not sure where I got this project/idea/inspiration from originally... Maybe fellow Art Teacher Annette Koepke?

I CAN statements for this project:
I can create an artwork inspired by Cubism.
I can color a specific way to create the illusion of cubism. 

Day 1: Started with an introduction to Picasso and Cubism. Showed them this YouTube video of Picasso working, and while it isn't him creating Cubism it is still pretty damn cool.

So we watched that and explored some of his Cubism paintings and talked about what made cubism cubism and then I introduced them to the project by showing my example and this brainstorming sheet....

What it came down to was that the subject matter could literally be ANYTHING. I knew it had to be something they really cared about or they would get seriously sick of coloring.

Day 2: Computer Lab! Visual references are so important especially when these kids are drawing things like logos, characters from games, or animals. While it seems crazy to "waste" a day in the lab to do this it was well worth it. I would do it the same all over again. UNLESS the kids had devices to look the images up on. *hopeful future*

Day 3-8: The next 6 classes had students all over the place working. Most were drawing on days 3 & 4 and then they outlined everything in black sharpie and drew lines on day 5. Most colored days 5-7. I taught/instructed everything after drawing in small groups who were ready for it as to not overwhelm kids that were still drawing. By the 8th class 85% were done and we did an awesome extension. More on that later ;)

Here is the process via pictures...

1. Draw objects and outline objects in black sharpie

 2. Draw enough lines that at least 5 touch each side of the page

 3. Color objects the correct colors but switch shades each time a line intersects it

4. Color background in one color shades and tints, cool colors, or warm colors

Mind you we did this on 12x18 which played a big role in the time. I think next time I will do these on 9x12 for time sake. Check out the AMAZING work my 4th graders did on these....

Jefferson Elementary...

 

 McDill Elementary...

What do you think? Not Cubism enough? Just make it a drawing/coloring concept project and scratch the Cubism?