Picasso Guitar Collage

 I recently finished a project on Picasso with my 3rd to 6th graders. I love using the guitar for subject matter, because it is something that every child can relate to and it is fairly easy to draw. After showing several of Picasso's collages below and discussing the different materials that Picasso used in his collages, we practiced drawing a real guitar. I brought one into class and we talked about the different components and shapes that make up a guitar. I also brought in some guitar catalogs for them to look at.

First we practiced on a piece of scrap paper and then they drew their guitar on a half sheet of 22x28 inch railroad board. After they had the design they liked they traced over their pencil lines with black oil pastel. The kids really enjoyed this part of the project and took a long time to get the "perfect" guitar down on their board. After they finished this part they were able to choose from different types of paper to cut "pieces" of guitar out of. They could choose from book pages, book pages painted with liquid watercolor, scrapbook paper, card stock, music sheets, paint chips, and brown recycled paper. Wallpaper would have been another good choice.  I encouraged them to play around with the color and design before they glued down their materials. This was a fun process and the kids all had a different idea about how they wanted theirs to look. They added Sharpie lines here and there to finish them off.