Picasso Face

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is widely know for co-founding the Cubist movement along with
Georges Braque (although they were both influenced by Paul Cezanne). In his later work
Picasso used a style that showed the features of the face from different points of view, which
gave the face a mixed up feeling. Roll the dice to create your own mixed-up face using
some of the features found in Picasso’s work.

The features in this dice drawing game are all taken from portraits made by Picasso and found
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
See if your students can figure out which portraits were used for each feature.
Hint: all of the ideas for each dice number are taken from the same portrait.
The key includes the web address and accession number that will help you quickly find an on-line
image. If you are looking at this PDF on your computer, you can click on the web address to
open your web browser to the image on the Met’s website.

Once the face is complete, encourage students to add hair, and maybe a hat, neck or body.
The drawings can be used as a fun follow up to a Picasso movie or art history lesson.
They could also be turned into a collage, painting, mixed media, digital or even clay slab project.

©www.expressivemonkey.com 2013
 Roll and Draw Sheets
Why the Roll and Draw Sheets?
I like the concept of the roll and draw sheets, because it challenges students to try
a drawing in an unexpected way. The element of surprise and challenge can motivate
reluctant drawers to give it a try, just to see what the outcome will look like.

What kind of Dice?

I highly recommend the use of foam dice. They are silent, for one thing, and the
students really like them. The only downside, is that I have to remind them not to
poke the dice with their pencils. Another alternative is “eraser dice”.

Dice can be found on Amazon’s website. Click on the

image for a link.
Setting up the Room:
I try to have a set of 1 dice and 1 sheet for every 1- 2 students. For example, my tables hold 4-6
students, so I put 3 dice and 3 drawing sheets at each table. This just saves on copies and buying
dice. Most students actually like sharing the set, so they can watch what the other person rolls,
and they can also share what they got. I remind them in the beginning, that even though they are
sharing the dice, they each get to make their own rolls, so their drawings should not look the same.

Ways to use the Roll and Draw Sheets made by

Expressive Monkey:
Some teachers use them at an art center, for students to choose from during center time, or if
they finish early on their regular art lesson.

Some of the dice sheets are designed to make some kind of animal or character. With this kind
of sheet, students could make several animals or characters to be included in their drawing. Or
students could make 2-3 drawings in their sketchbooks and pick the one they like best to be the main
character in their drawing.

Some dice drawing sheets are designed to set up an entire work of art. For this type of dice
drawing sheet, you can decide what media you would like your students to use. It could be a quick
one day picture with dry media (maybe done with a sub). Or paint and mixed media could eventually
be used to give it a more finished look.

I hope your students will enjoy using the roll and draw sheets!
Expressive Monkey
 More about the 2 versions:
Students will roll the dice and for each roll they will look at the
dice drawing sheet to pick out a part for a Picasso-like face.
For example, for the firt roll, they will pick out a face shape,
for the next two rolls, they will pick out 2 different eyes, etc...
The randomness of this drawing game challenges students to
try a combination they might not have thought of.

With this version, I wanted to encourage students to create

the head outline and then connect the nose and mouth first.
Depending on which eye they rolled next, they could pos-
sibly connect the eyebrow to the nose line (as seen in my
colored example). I found that if the students do the eyes
first, sometimes they forget to connect the lines. So in this
version, the eyes are added last. Connecting the lines divides
the face in 1/2 nicely for adding two colors to the face, which
might work out better for some kinds of media. I also added
a step-by-step drawing below the dice drawing choices that
illustrates how to connect the eyebrow, nose and mouth line.

©www.expressivemonkey.com 2013
 Picasso Face Key
Use the key below to look at the portraits that were used to create the Picasso Face Dice Drawing Game.
Show each picture to young artists and have them figure out which dice number corresponds.
The links are provided below, or typing the Accession Number in the search feature will also work.

Dora Maar in an Armchair

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1939
Accession Number: 1998.23
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210007255

Head of a Woman
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1960
Accession Number: 1990.192
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210005619

Jacqueline with a Headband III

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1964
Accession Number: 1980.481.4
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210002342

Woman in a Hat with Pompoms and a Printed Blouse

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1962
Accession Number: 1985.1079.4
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/90028244

Jacqueline in a Straw Hat

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1962
Accession Number: 1979.620.57
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/90041243

Large Head of a Woman in a Hat

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
Date: 1962
Accession Number: 1979.620.67
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/90041253

© www.expressivemonkey.com 2013
 Picasso Face
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) is widely know for co-founding the Cubist movement. In his later work, he used a style
that showed the features of the face from different sides, which gave the face a mixed up feeling.
Roll the dice to create your own mixed-up face using some of the features found in Picasso’s work.

1st Roll 2nd Roll 3rd Roll 4th Roll 5th Roll
Ears Eye #1 Eye #2 Nose Mouth

The features in this dice drawing game are all taken from portraits made by Picasso and found at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. See if you can figure out which portraits were used.
Hint: all of the ideas for each dice number are taken from the same portrait.

www.expressivemonkey.com
 Picasso Face
1st Roll 2nd Roll 3rd Roll 4th Roll 5th Roll
Ears Nose Mouth Eye #1 Eye #2

step-by-step
example:
Connect nose Connect nose
to mouth. to eyebrow,
(except #1 and #4) then add hair!
www.expressivemonkey.com