If Picasso Made Monsters!

Woman in Beret and Checked Dress
(1937)

What if Picasso did Halloween?

Our Home School Art Club explored this idea by creating these spooky Halloween creatures in the style of Picasso.

Pablo Picasso asked, "Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?" 

A good question -- and a great starting point for creating these unique portraits of witches, monsters, and other spooky beings. 

We started by pairing younger with older artists so that they could help one another with directional tasks.







Then we asked, how can we make our portraits similar to those of Pablo Picasso? We found several ways to do this. First, we created both frontal and profile views of the subject within the same face, using two different colors of paper. 





Picasso said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

So we also made our artwork simple, spontaneous, and childlike, as did Picasso; and used collage techniques, as he often did. 





We also depicted strong emotion in each character's face; as did Picasso.











We used Sharpies to add linear details within each face, like hairy warts, wrinkles, and stitches! Some artists also outlined their subjects.

Then the background was filled in with cutouts such as moons, stars, and bats. Some drew patterns such as stars and swirls and spirals. 

These artists ranged in age from 4 through 15.

You can visit Mrs. Picasso's Art Room (thank you Mrs. Picasso!) for step-by-step instructions to create this spooky-awesome art project !!!