Picasso Portrait Inspired Art Lesson Using Folded Paper and Watercolor

There are so many ways to teach Picasso portraits, 

I'm working with 3rd grade so I wanted to keep it simple.

I'll show them some of Picasso's Portraits and then go into the project - demonstrating each step.

I'm going to ask them to create diagonal folds, not even folds that create squares on their page, but more random folds.

They should make about 5 folds and then using a ruler go over the fold lines with a sharpie.

Looking at the lines on their page and turning it around from different sides they should see the suggestion of a face and they can begin sketching.

I'm going to show them how to use the lines to begin the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin etc...

When they have a face they like they should go over it with sharpie.

Now they can use watercolor to finish the portrait.  

I am going to emphasize complementary colors which is another way to force them to be more abstract, but also something Picasso did in his paintings.

Student Work

I passed out a copy of this worksheet to help them think of different ways to make the features.