Picasso Self-Portrait

Picasso Lesson

With my students we do "self portrait" using the Picasso style.  Students create themselves in an abstract way, then paint it with watercolors.  I like having the white background because it makes the the portrait stand out more.  With my students we talk about the history of Picasso and focus on the element of Shape and colors

Supplies:
Large piece of watercolor paper. Tag board works too
Watercolor paint
Brushes
Sharpie
Pencil

Steps:
1. Lay the paper vertical
2. Draw an organic shape for the head...doesn't need to be perfect.  Better if it is not!
3. Draw the profile line down the middle of the face, adding a nose.
4. Draw eyes, eyebrows, another nose, two sets off lips, ears, hair, and other stuff.
          With this it is important to be creative and try not to make each side look the same.
5. Add a neck and shoulders.
6. Start to paint, you really want the colors to mix well with each other and have them blend.  Try to keep complementary colors away from each other, so blue/orange, Red/green, yellow/violet.  They can make brown when mixing.
7. Let the work air dry.
8. Once dry outline everything that was drawn earlier with sharpie to stand out.
9.  Lay under books to flatten.
10.  Hang it!