After such a long project to complete these beauties I wanted my 4th graders to have a really fun, stress free, extension for those that were done on our last workday of this project... enter Roll-A-Picasso! I did this last year after my 4th and 5th graders finished up this project. And it was a huge hit, entertained for the entire 45mins!
I made these sheets up ahead of time after finding a not so great version online awhile back and borrowed some dice from a classroom teacher....
Just a few minutes to explain and do examples and then they were hard at work creating these slightly creepy but awesome drawings. They had the option to just draw faces or draw and add on to the faces, and then color if they wanted too...they always get to take extensions home day of so I snapped a ton of pictures!
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?
Another project in my big Art History unit with my students is finally all displayed and ready to be shared! The two above were chosen for Youth Art Month at the Portage County Library! I found this project via pinterest (which is the worst kind of pinterest post). JUST an image. However, this image was actually pretty useful for understanding the project.
Day 1: Picasso intro! Short and sweet powerpoint with a YouTube video of Picasso in action. I did stop it a minute early because he paints a naked lady (and I wasn't ready to tackle that). They really seemed to enjoy this short clip, makes the artist a lot more real to them. If only we had video of Van Gogh!
After the video we played "Roll a Picasso" here is a version on Teachers Pay Teachers but I made my own to add a view more parts to it. My students absolutely loved this. They did it for 30 minutes without getting bored! I told them there was no mistakes, they didn't need to erase, and they would take them with them when they left. If they got sick of drawing they could switch to coloring them. I really wish I would of taken some pictures. There was really great ones!
Day 2: I show them a little poster that I put together reminding them of some things about Picasso and showing some of his other works. Then I demo drawing the different features on the paper scraps using oil pastels and finishing with a black crayon. I saw such a higher level of confidence of this project and I think it was because of the Roll a Picasso. They had come in knowing what their strengths were with what features, and I didn't limit them to the ones on the sheet either. If there was a way they wanted to draw a feature or knew how, they did it.
Day 3: Showed the poster once again just to remind them of Picasso (seeing as we only see each other once every six school days)! And started with a short demo of creating the head shape and coloring and assembling it. Started with drawing the head, arranging the pieces, traced them, took them off and colored the sections of the face with oil pastels. If it didn't naturally break into sections they did it where they thought best. Last step was glue sticking them on and tracing the added paper and lines in black crayon.
I am so excited to share these with you, I just LOVE how these turned out!
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