Mix em up and call it art

So how else do you describe Cubism?  I know there is a more technical term, but in the end you pretty much mix em up and call it art.  At least that is how one of my high school students tried to explain it.

So after we talked about Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, in a little bit more detail, I had the students try to put some mixed up pictures together the best they could.  Of course it takes them a minute or two to realize that not all of the pieces are there and there are a few extra pieces from other pictures.  But I still make them try to form a coherent picture with hall of the pieces given.

We then take out our sketchbooks and practice using and blending oil pastels.  I have them draw 9 unusual shapes in their sketchbooks and then they had to practice different techniques in each shape with different colors.  I let them know this is their chance to see what colors work well together.

I then have them find and print off an animal, insect or fish.  I tell them to make sure to make it big enough, usually as big as they can works best.  I then have them lay the print out on top of a 12x12 piece of white tag board.  They then are required to trace their animal using a pen and pressing hard.  Once they trace the whole paper, they pick it up and find the indentations that were left behind.  Then they trace the indents with a pencil.  They hopefully traced every detail that they needed, like eyes and nose.  Then I have them trace the same or different picture for a total of three times.  They do need to offset the next two in some way.  Some turn the paper, some do a different image of the same animal, some rotate on the edges, but in some way they need to overlap.

After they are all traced, they need to find a creative way to break up the background.  Then they can use any of the 9 oil pastel techniques that they learned to fill in each area.  The only thing I ask is that each area has some sort of color gradation.