Second Graders (!) did these fabulous Picasso Heads! They really got into the spirit of Picasso when they drew and “painted” them with oil pastels. It was very exciting to see how they embraced the fact that not everything needs to look exactly like the real thing … even my very linear thinkers stepped out of their comfort zone for this one!
We first talked about the use of color and shapes in art to communicate feelings and meaning in a painting. Using Picasso’s Portrait of a Woman … 
the use of blue and cool colors, triangle for a tear, a white/open circle where her heart is, shows us she is very sad. We then moved on to the painting, Girl Before a Mirror. 
This is an excellent example of Picasso’s use of shape and color. Also, Picasso many times would put a line through the face to show that the subject has more than one personality or many sides. He also outlined everything in black to accentuate his color.
Students drew 3 heads that touched … representing a relationship between their characters. They then had to draw a line top to bottom on each head showing the 2 sides of each “person”. Using shapes for features, students began building the personality of their Picasso heads. We talked in simple terms about what shapes might represent. A heart for a mouth, corkscrew for eyes, etc. Of course, crazy shapes for hair is a given!!! After pencil, everyone outlined in Sharpie – their choice of thick or thin lines.
For color, we used oil pastels. I introduce the fact that oil pastels aren’t really glorified crayons. There is a reason for oil pastels. The pastel goes on nice and thick, but pastels are made to be spread and blended like paint! We use Q-tips to make the pastels look like oil paint and get a heavy coating of color. The use of an everyday item in our art always gives the students a little thrill and makes them think, “what else can I use?” (and no one put them in their ears … (-:!)
OUR RESULTS WERE FABULOUS!
CreARTive Sparks & Artful Thoughts 