Name: Nan Stein
School: Dewey School
Title: Picasso Portraits: Digital Art meets Studio Art
Subject(s) this lesson addresses:
Grade level(s) for this lesson:
Picasso, technology, elements of art
2nd – 5th Grade
Big Ideas: How do lines/shapes create images? How do portraits express mood?
Time Line: The initial project should take four-40 minute class periods. When the initial lesson is
extended, another time line should be established. For example, a crayon drawing would require
one additional class period while a printing project or book would require several additional class
periods.
Description:
This lesson is an integrated art appreciation, technology and studio experience. Students are
inspired by the work of Pablo Picasso and then visit a website with his namesake.
I have chosen Picassohead.com because it is a free website and young student friendly.
Picassohead also has techniques that can later be translated to other creative software such as
scale up/down, flip, rotate and color palette. Creativity can be experienced by the manner in
which students use the basic tools in more advanced combinations as well as when students
create their own portraits after exposure to this software as drawings or prints.
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Students will create a digital portrait that will serve as a basis for the creation of a second portrait
on tag board. The final activity in this lesson uses tag-board cards to engage students in game
playing reinforcing art concepts. Computer generated art → Marker drawn images on tagboard →
Flashcard Game → Student’s Original Image: Drawing, Print, Painting, Glued Yarn
What is a Picasso portrait?
How do I create a Picasso portrait?
How can we create digitally and then transform it to a studio experience?
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Goals:
Student is able to log in and use technology to create art.
Student is able to use line to create a portrait.
Student is able to identify and create a portrait using primary, secondary, cool and warm colors.
Student is able to identify and create a portrait using symmetry.
Student is able to identify abstract portraits vs. realistic portraits
Student is able to create a portrait.
Objectives:
Students appreciate the many portrait styles of Pablo Picasso.
Students create art incorporating technology as well as studio materials.
Students are able to identify color and line as created by themselves and their peers.
Standards: ISBE Fine Art
25.A.1d Visual Arts: Identify the elements of line, shape, space, color and texture; the principles
of repetition and pattern; and the expressive qualities of mood, emotion and pictorial
representation.
25.A.2d Visual Arts: Identify and describe the elements of 2- and 3-dimensional space, figure
ground, value and form; the principles of rhythm, size, proportion and composition; and the
expressive qualities of symbol and story.
25.A.3e Visual Arts: Analyze how the elements and principles can be organized to convey
meaning through a variety of media and technology.
25.A.3d Visual Arts: Identify and describe the elements of value, perspective and color
schemes; the principles of contrast, emphasis and unity; and the expressive qualities of thematic
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development and sequence.
25.B.1 Identify similarities in and among the arts (e.g., pattern, sequence and mood).
25.B.2 Understand how elements and principles combine within an art form to express ideas.
26.A.1e Visual Arts: Identify media and tools and how to use them in a safe and responsible
manner when painting, drawing and constructing.
26.A.2e Visual Arts: Describe the relationships among media, tools/technology and processes.
If printmaking:
26.A.2f Visual Arts: Understand the artistic processes of printmaking, weaving, photography and
sculpture.
26.B.1d Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create visual works of art using
manipulation, eye-hand coordination, building and imagination.
26.B.2d Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create works of visual art using
problem solving, observing, designing, sketching and constructing.
Art Institute of Chicago artwork:
Woman's Head by Pablo Picasso, November 2,
1945
Transfer lithograph on ivory wove paper
Prints and Drawings, Not currently on display
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Activities:
Students view and discuss Picasso’s works:
Woman's Head 11/2/1945
Head of a Young Girl 12/17/1945
Head of a Young Girls 2/19/1945
Heads from Les Metamorphoses
Questions for discussion include:
What kinds of lines or shapes did the artist use?
Is there symmetry?
Are they realistic or abstract?
What medium do you think the artist used?
How do they make you feel?
How are the subject’s eyes expressive?
Students understand the concept of creating art-involving technology
Students have no prior knowledge in the creating art digitally.
Technology allows the student to be successful creating Picasso-like images which transfers into
their own work. Drawing images they have created on the screen forces them to recreate lines
and understand their relationships to each other. Their higher level thinking involves concepts as
repetition, symmetry, and mood since they have been exposed to this website.
Log into free art website: www.Picassohead.com
Students can work individually, in pairs or in small groups on the computers.
Students go to “Gallery” and define gallery and view the current virtual gallery.
Students go to “Create” and create their own versions of computer generated Picasso portraits.
They can be encouraged to create portraits using color families (primary, secondary, warm, cool,
etc), shapes and lines.
Once they are comfortable creating digital images, they can reproduce those images with marker
on the tag-board cards they have been provided.
Students should write the element of art concept(s) on the reverse side of the card
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Students will be involved in learning color by creating specific portraits using primary, secondary,
warm and cool colors.
Students will learn about space using the scale up/scale down feature to show which are closer to
the viewer and which are further from the viewer.
Students will reinforce their learning from the classroom regarding symmetry through using the
flip feature.
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These cards can later be used as an art flash card game or a giant Picasso quilt.
Further extensions: paintings, prints, glued yarn, book, comic strip integrating writing
Day 1 Students are introduced to the work of Pablo Picasso
Day 2 Students log-in to computers.
Picassohead.com is demonstrated as well as a drawing on a tagboard card that duplicates the
image created on the screen.
Students create a Picassohead images (4) on the screen using primary, secondary, cool and
warm colors with marker on tagboard cards.
Day 3 Students continue to create computer generated images and recreate them on tagboard with
markers.
Day 4 Students finish cards, write color concept on the back of the card (ie primary, secondary, cool,
warm) and play color flashcards with classmates.
Materials: Laptop/desktop computers, markers, tag-board rectangles 3x2" or 4x5"
Depending on lesson extension: paper, paints, markers, printing plates (foam), printing
inks, oil pastels
Vocabulary/Glossary/Key Words:
Abstract, realistic, line, shape, repetition, flip, rotate, symmetry, primary colors, secondary colors,
cool colors, warm colors
Assessments:
Evaluation rubric attached.
Students can also write a reflection on their learning experience.
Student success related to knowledge of color can be easily assessed as they play with the color
flash cards they’ve created.
Resources and bibliography:
Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/
Software
Picassohead.com
Video
Dropping in on Picasso
Video/Book
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists
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