Pablo Picasso Self-Portraits

Here are some great self-portraits completed by my 5th grade students. They did a great job taking what we learned about Pablo Picasso and making it their own unique style.

To start this lesson, I showed various Pablo Picasso paintings throughout his life and we discussed how his style changed over a period of time. Then we discused why he painted the way he did during his more abstract years.

Then it was time for the students to get to work, so they each got their own 12"x18" colored pieced of construction paper and a piece of chalk. They were instructed to start off drawing their head shape. I then showed them how to break up the middle of their head by drawing a profile line (that was just to help them get started). After that it was up to them to come up with the rest of their drawing.

When they were finished drawing their design using the chalk,they were given a q-tip and black india ink to trace over their line.

After the ink dried, they filled in the spaces using chalk pastels. We went over how to blend their colors and smooth out the pastel.

If they needed to, they could go back over their black lines with the india ink and add more designs in the background when they were done with the pastels.

I laminated these when they were done so it wouldn't make a mess everywhere, but you could always use a fixative from Wal-mart in the crafts section or even hairspray.