After completing several classes working on their self-portrait pencil drawings, I wanted to give my 7th grade art students a little more freedom to express their creativity. We read an article about Cubism and the abstract portraits of Pablo Picasso. Then, they viewed and interpreted two of his most famous works, "Weeping Woman" and "The Kiss." They wrote down their thoughts on "Post-it" notes before sharing them with the class.
Students were then given the creative challenge to draw an abstract portrait in the style of Picasso using black paper and oil pastels. I gave them just a few instructions on including a profile within the frontal view and to try to break the face up into geometric Cubism-style shapes. The rest was up to them. It was interesting to see that some students had difficulty deciding what and where to position the facial features after so many days learning how to accurately draw their self portraits. After the first class, however, they really began to show their talent as modern masters of portraiture.
