Most students have at least heard of the name Picasso, but sometimes don't understand what he does or how. Students watched a demonstration a few weeks ago of how a cubist artist worked. I chose a student and I showed them how the artist would walk around the subject, drawing from different angles. Students noticed that although I had all the pieces there, it didn't really look like the person I was drawing. It was a very fun exercise! I also showed them this fun drawing of Homer Simpson.
Using cut paper, we created a monster from the front and in profile (side). We included the nose in the profile version. Once these were glued down, we used oil pastels to add in details to our monsters. Students were shown how to create a mouth and eyes from the front and from the side. Even though everyone saw the same examples, every monster was very different! They even created a background to show where the monster would live. Some examples: in a volcano, in a cave, in a mirror (!), in a graveyard, etc. Some classes used yarn to add hair to their monsters, it just depended on time!