Upside down drawing the masters

I think there is something really powerful about copying a master work, especially in middle school. For this project, we took Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain drawing upside down technique to the next level. I was inspired by an article (which I wish I could find to give proper credit) in which a HS teacher had her students draw Picasso's Stravinsky upside down and apply a color scheme.

What you need:

A large sheet of paper (I used 18 x 24)
A print out of any master work cartoonified (simply, a work of art that has been simplified to a line drawing like something you would find in a coloring book. Just google "Picasso coloring book" or "American gothic coloring book" ect...)
Pencil
Crayons, color pencil, and markers
Black sharpies or other black markers

Have the students first practice drawing Picssso's Stravinsky on a piece of copy paper to get started. Practicing will take you about a day and this project last about 4 weeks ( 50 minute sessions every other day) if you don't have that much time, use a smaller piece of paper. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is now on YouTube. I highly suggest showing students the segment on drawing upside down. She explains it in a way that I couldn't.

The students drew their master work from observation completely upside down the entire time. This is a break through technique for those of you that have not tried this with students. When it was time to color them in, I taught them about every color scheme I could think of and made them choose one. Everyone was happy with their end product.