Cubist Inspired Reliefs

This Cubist-Inspired Relief Tutorial provides everything you need to deliver a high-impact, creative project with confidence. Perfect for busy middle and high school art teachers, this comprehensive resource is fully adaptable to different timeframes and student abilities. It’s packed with resources, examples, practical instructions, and real student examples to inspire and support your lessons. Whether you’re introducing Cubism for the first time or looking to deepen students’ understanding through hands-on making, this complete tutorial takes the stress out of planning and ensures meaningful, successful outcomes for all.

This 28 slide PDF presentation is ready to show students to guide them through a series of creative techniques to produce their own Cubist-inspired relief artwork. It includes photographic resources featuring musical instruments captured from multiple angles, providing excellent starting points for exploration. Estimated time to complete 10-12 hours.

Students begin by researching the origins of Cubism, focusing on the pioneering work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Through their research, they gain an understanding of how these artists broke away from traditional representation by exploring fragmentation, multiple viewpoints, geometric simplification, and limited colour palettes. Students examine how Picasso and Braque deconstructed everyday subjects—such as instruments, bottles, and faces—into abstracted forms, shifting perspectives to challenge the viewer’s perception of space and form.

Building on this knowledge, students move through a step-by-step practical process, supported by teacher resources and examples of student outcomes. This tried-and-tested approach can be adapted to suit different timeframes and student abilities, ensuring every learner can experience success regardless of age or skill level.

Students produce four key artworks as part of their creative journey: An observational drawing of a musical instrument, a small coloured painting exploring Cubist fragmentation, a larger painting with collaged paper sections to experiment with colour mixing and blending and textures and a cardboard cut-out of their chosen instrument, further developing their understanding of shape and form. These artworks are then cut into sections and layered using blocks or spacers to construct a three-dimensional relief composition that celebrates Cubist principles in a tactile, contemporary outcome.

Materials required: Cardboard, coloured paper, drawing paper and pencils, paints, textured printouts, blocks or spacers for layering, strong glue for construction