Cubism is essentially a box that has been flattened to see all sides. So, in an art piece, Cubism looks three-dimensional and two-dimensional at the same time. It also uses a lot of gradation. We work a lot on gradation. For colored pencil, they start with a base color and then fade with a second different color. For example, a section is filled with one flat color of yellow and then shows a fade with orange going into the yellow. This layering helps with eliminating the white undertone of the paper and gives a more finished look.

For this unit of study, students start with a sketchbook assignment on animals that look strong and have more interesting parts to them then say a bear or a dolphin. Then when the students draw their own rough draft, I tell them to look for an animal that is similar to the sketchbook assignment. If I see that they picked something too simple, I ask them to look for a different animal that is more unique and interesting in shape. It makes it easier to transform it into Cubism but still is recognizable. A bear is blocky to begin with and may end up just looking like a square. The rough draft also needs a background that is Cubism. It can be simple like my example.

Teaching wise, there are a few challenges. I tell students they cannot look up a Cubism animal and copy it. The point of art is to develop innovative thinking. They need to draw a real animal and then change it to Cubism. Gradation is a challenge in every assignment. So, I have one-on-one feedback for every class session to help with this. I also recommend trying alternative color choices. Such as the red cross hatching we see in the blue sections of the background in my example.