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Picasso for Kids: Cubist Portraits

2013
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We love doing kids art projects in the style of great artists for the bimonthly Kids Get Arty series. This month we had fun doing an easy Picasso for kids activity– cubist-style portraits!

Art Projects for Kids: Picasso Portraits

We went online and studied lots of different portraits that Picasso had done.  We talked about the differences between his work and portraits done by other artists and looked at other cubist style portaits to find similiarities.  The 4 year old, 6 year old and I all practiced drawing faces with big lines, different shapes, and varied proportions.

Art Projects for Kids: Picasso Portrait Drawing

Then tried their own!  My 6 year old chose Picasso’s Head of a Woman (1960) to copy.  They used oil pastels and art canvas paper from CraftProjectIdeas.com.  They both loved the effect of the oil pastels on the canvas paper, my daughter thought she was just like Picasso!

Kids Art Projects: Easy Picasso PortaitsMy 4 year old chose Picasso’s Self Portrait (1907) to try.

While the kids both enjoyed the project it was interesting to see that my 4 year old felt much more comfortable drawing in this style than my 6 year old did.  She wasn’t as pleased with how hers turned out and had more trouble stepping out of her daily drawing comfort zone and trying something new.  This is why I love the Kids Get Arty series so much, it is a great way for us (the kids and me) to take creative risks and expand our art knowledge.  I definitely recommend doing it at your house too!

Cardboard Box Kids Art FramesWe displayed their art in these cool cardboard frames I had made for our front room.  I drew whimsical frame shapes onto large pieces of cardboard with oil pastels, cut them out and colored them in, so easy!  Then I used Command Poster Adhesive Value Pack, 48-Strips to stick them to the wall.  The kids art work is just taped on and can be changed out whenever they want.  We love how they turned out!

There are lots of art projects already linked up so go and see what others did this month and then try some of your own! It’s lots of fun!

Disclaimer: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided me with the art canvas paper for free, but all opinions are mine.  This post also contains Amazon affiliate links.

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Kids Art Activity: Discovering Dali

2012
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It’s time for Kids Get Arty! We participated for the first time in September and had a blast drawing pet portraits in the style of Brooke Churchill.  I was completely blown away by how fantastic the experience was and still cannot believe we waited so long to join in!

For November’s challenge we decided it was time to FINALLY visit The Dali! I have been wanting to go since we moved here 2 years ago, but was worried the kids weren’t quite ready.  Now that the littlest one is almost 3 we decided to go for it and hope for the best!

Trip to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL

And it was awesome!  The staff at the museum is phenomenal and was not at all put off by the fact that we were bringing in 4 small children.  They suggested we take the kid friendly “mustache” audio tour and gave each of the kids a scavenger hunt map and pencil.

The kids were so excited to hear about Dali and the artwork and have talking and asking questions about him as if he was someone we actually know.  The best part of the experience for me was how each of the children took turns (without any prompting) giving us their interpretations of the artwork.  They fed off each others ideas and compared each new painting and sculpture with the ones we had already seen.  Their observations and thoughts were incredible–my husband and I stood back and let them discuss and soaked up their perspective.  And enjoyed how much they enjoyed the silliness of surrealism!

The architecture, the events, the outdoor art garden–there are too many fantastic things at The Dali to cover in this post!  Make sure you check out their website for more info.

After our visit almost all of my 4 year old’s drawings were “like Dali” and they were excited when we finally sat down to create.  I had suggested painting, but they were adamant about using crayons and drawing paper.  They thought it would be easier to add surrealistic details in a medium they were very familiar with.  They were also enamoured with the titles and descriptions they saw at the museum and put a lot of thought into theirs.

Kids Art Activities in the Style of the Great Artists

  Description by the artist (4 years old):

An elephant surrounded by a water scooter with butterflies and crowns and a pterodactyl flying in the air through the clouds.

Fun Kids Art Project in the Style of Dali

Description by the artist (6 years old):

Five butterflies and flying candy canes surround a ship and block its passage to home.  The butterflies are surreal.  Some have crazy wings and one is naked.

Preschool Art Project: Draw like Dali

Description by the artist (almost 3 years old):
A butterfly,  ladybug, bug, and a monster were going through the machine at the car wash.

  Kids Art Activities: Discovering DaliExploring the Great Artist with kids is so much fun! Check out all of the other kids art activities that have been linked up and join in the fun yourself–you won’t regret it!

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Kid Drawn Pet Portraits

2012
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We finally joined in the fun at Kids Get Arty and I cannot believe we have waited this long!  The artist we chose to study is Brooke Churchill who does these crazy cool pet portraits in a style she calls her Signature Mosaic Technique.  If you’ve never seen any of her work you have to go and check out her website–the whimsical details in her work are simply amazing!

We spent a lot of time looking at the different pet portraits she has on her site and were completely captivated.  Each of the kids immediately knew which pet they were going to draw, but my 6 year old wanted to practice before doing her final portrait.  She kept going back to her drawings in her free time and I was reminded of a post I read on Red Ted Art about layers in art work. I was definitely impressed with her patience and commitment to this project.

My 2 year old’s portrait of our dog Maddie.  She, too, spent days on her work and is so proud of her final creation.  She really enjoyed filling the space with different colors and patterns and added on to her original drawing of Maddie’s face and neck.

My 4 year old did a portrait of his “pet” giraffe, Giraffee.  He sleeps with Giraffee every night and did not have to think for a second about whose portrait he was going to draw.  His drawing was completed the most quickly, in about 3 sessions.  It was also interesting to see how decisive he was with his color and pattern choices–it was almost as if this portrait has been in his head for awhile.

 And here is my 6 year old’s pet portrait.  She also drew our dog Maddie.  She was the only one to use colored pencils and was really able to capture the detail and whimsy of Brooke Churchill’s style.  She spent over a week on her portrait and did not finish until she was totally satisfied.

To say that I adore all of their portraits is a huge understatement.  I love them.  I can’t wait to frame them.  I can stare at them forever looking at all the details.  I cannot believe that we almost passed up this experience since we were so busy this month.  It was enriching in every way.  I am so thankful to Red Ted Art for the Kids Get Arty series and will definitely, absolutely be participating in future months.  And you should too.  Whether or not you have a blog or know anything about art.  Just join in.  You’ll be so glad you did.

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