Pablo Picasso / Monochromatic Painting

Mini Biography

Pablo Picasso was born October 25 in 1881 in Spain. His father was a painter, art teacher and a curator (someone who picks out the artwork) for a museum. Picasso liked art as a child and his mother says his first word was “pencil” because he liked to draw. Picasso could draw so realistically that his father thought his son was better than him at 7 years old. When Picasso was 13 he got into an art school by passing a test that others take weeks to pass.

When Picasso was 16 he decided to go away and live by himself. He was very poor and had to burn some of his artwork just to keep warm. He started an art magazine with a friend in 1901. Three years later Gertrude Stein, a wealth New Yorker started collecting his art and became his patron (someone who helps make famous). She introduced him to other famous artists like Matisse.

Picasso married a ballerina who he met while designing the set for the ballet she was in. They had one son. They separated and Picasso married again. He had three other children with different women.

During WWII Picasso was working in Paris when the Nazi’s took over. They controlled what you could and could not paint so Picasso worked in his studio but did not show anyone his work until the Nazi’s left in 1944.

Pablo Picasso switched from painting realistically to something he and a friend called Cubism. A cubist painting is one where the subject that is being painted, such as a guitar or a flower arrangement or a friend is not painted to look real but is shown from different view point. In the end the painting looks like something broken and put back together in the wrong order. A good example is “Woman with a Blue Hat.” This type of painting had never been seen before and made Picasso famous.

Tie In to Project

Picasso also liked to paint in monochrome, which means a wide range of one color. Many of his cubist paintings are shades of brown. Before he started cubist painting he painted for a long time using only red. He called this the rose period. He also painted mostly in blue and called this the blue period. A good example of this is “The Old Guitarist.”

Demonstration

In monochromatic paintings you see the same shades of the same color. You can make many shades using just three colors, white, black, and the base color you want to show the most. On a straight paint pallet put the base color in the middle, add a little black going one direction and a little more the further you go. In the other direction add a little white and a little more the further you go out. You should have at least 5 shades of the same color. You may paint a bookmark size strip of paper to show these shades or just observe the paint palette.

Tip: Make sure you always wash your brush or use different brushes for each shade in order to not mix.

Project

Using a minimum of 5 shade of the same color paint a pre-made scene.

Start by doing the shadows in the darkest tone, then work your way up to the lightest.

Materials

Paint pallet with at least five mixing spots

White Paint

Black Paint

Other colors of paint, each student chooses only one

1-5 brushes per person

Water cup with water

Cloth to wipe brushes out

Paper with an image to paint

Easy: Rainbow, A box on the floor (three sides, floor, wall), anything with 5 areas to paint

Medium: Ball, Cone, Box, anything simple with shadows and highlights

Hard: Draped Material, Figures, anything with shadows, highlights, and details

Variations

The 8x10 image can be an image you photocopy, different pages ripped out of a coloring book, or a drawing the students had made earlier.

Follow up

What emotions do colors show? Blue- sad, Red- Angry

What was hard about painting this way? What was easy?