Digital Art: Pablo Picasso Style

What I Did

Self portrait of me referencing Pablo Picasso? This was right up my alley!!! I played with this a couple of times and thought is was really fun!

The steps were pretty straight forward. First, I went to the Picasso Head website. You can create your own portrait on this site as well! Under "create" I made my portrait by selecting from the various categories, like "lips" or "faces," clicking on a choice under "drag to canvas" and dragging right to the blank canvas. I selected from the tools below to change the color, the direction of the feature placed on the canvas, its size, and more.

I signed my completed work by clicking on "signature" and saved it to the gallery by clicking on "save/email this painting." You even have the option of titling your work.


Not only can you create your piece; you can explore portraits created by others under "gallery," or under "search" find a particular work by its title or artist.






My Portrait entitled "The Face My Mothers Gave Me"

Application

This website would be a fun activity for the first day or week of school in art or other classes. Students could warm up to the upcoming creative year or share it with the class as a little introduction describing why they chose the features of their portraits and describe themselves or their interests.

The reason why I LOVE this activity is that it is a problem-solving task. You are given a limited number of options to choose from, though their are infinite portraits to create. If you want to create a particular nose or hair style not listed, as in my case, you have to use existing forms and tools to build a new form. For example, the nose I created was done so using two "abstract" shapes layered on top of each other. I changed the colors, one green and one peach, to differentiate the shapes. I used the "send forward" or "send back" to make the smaller peach shape visible over the larger green shape. The only visible part of the green shape in the back creates a line forming the nose.

What I Learned

I learned one more way to incorporate technology into my art class using this neat website.  By using fun and simple activities, like this one, I capture students' attention by appealing to their interest in online games and activities and letting them be expressive and a little silly with their assignment. They can become engaged with the creative process without being intimidated the first week of art class because of their limited drawing skills.

ISTE Nets- T requirement one is most satisfied by this activity. By using this site, the teacher would most definitely "facilitate and inspire student learning." This activity advances even my creativity, as a teacher, and would "advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments."