Grade: 1.5Print: Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

Artist: Pablo PicassoMaterials: 30 sheets 9x12 Watercolor paper30 Pencils30 watercolor brushesJars for waterLiquid watercolors and watercolor palattesOil pastels

Biography:Pablo Picasso was born on October 25,1881 in Malaga, Spain. He was the first child of Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco, an art teacher, and Maria Picasso y Lopez. At an early age Pablo showed an interest in drawing. His first words were "piz, piz", which is short for "lapiz", the Spanish word for pencil.

At the age of 7 Pablo began receiving art instruction from his father. His father believed that an artist's training should include copying the masters, and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models. The precision of Pablo's painting technique grew, until it soon surpassed that of his father.

In 1895 Pablo's father accepted a position at Barcelona's School of Fine

Arts. As a student he lacked discipline, though made friends and continued to grow as an artist.

At the age of 16 Pablo's father enrolled him in Spain's most distinguished art school, Madrid's Royal Academy of San Fernando. His instruction at the Royal Academy lasted only a short time however, as he struggled to accept formal instruction.

In 1900 Picasso made his first trip to Paris. At the time Paris was considered to be the art capital of Europe. While in Paris Picasso's work began to attract the attention of art collectors. He was known as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture and the co-invention of collage. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.

Suggested Presentation + Questions to ask the children:

What is interesting about his lady’s face?

What would you have named this painting if you had done it?

What do you think this lady is doing?

Do you think it took Picasso a long time to paint this painting? Why?

What words would you use to describe this painting?

Do you like this artwork? Why or why not?

Related Art Project: Picasso cubist face

With pencil:Draw a profile of a face down the middle of the paper (forehead, nose, mouth, chin). You may want to draw this with them step by step on the board. Start just below the top so you can leave room for hair. Kids can look at the child next to them to see their profile. Instruct the children to think about the placement of the first line (middle of paper). Since this is a lesson in cubism, it’s best not to be perfect. Leave the neck for now then draw an eye looking to the side. To the left of the profile, draw a curved line from the top side of the head to the chin of the other face. On this face the kids draw an eye facing towards them. The mouth is where the kids join the two faces. This is also where they see how the two faces fit together. Draw hair, neck and shoulders on the other side.

With oil pastel:Color one side of the face one color and then chose a different color for the other side. The oil pastel should be applied heavily. This is where you need to encourage kids to put in their best effort. A lightly colored rendering is not what we’re after here. For the final step, ask the kids to trace over all the black oil pastel lines with a black oil pastel. This is a good time to add small details like eyelashes.

With watercolors:Paint the background with watercolor paints.

To finish you can attach these to a piece of black construction paper as a frame or just leave as is.

Additional resources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fNvBJAJw4s&feature=player_embedded

Vocabulary: line art, watercolor, cubism, abstraction