Simple Squares

Who is that you see in the picture above? 

If you guessed President Abraham Lincoln you are right. 

I like the idea that you can create a picture of someone with just simple squares.

You notice that the picture is all black, gray and white.

Wouldn't it be fun to divide a sheet of white paper into squares and have the children shade each square in a way to make a picture of something?  I wonder what they would decide to make.  Or maybe we could give them a picture of their teacher or an apple or a flag on a flagpole. 

Shape is something that can be so simple. 

Have fun.

Silhouettes

This lesson I found in a book I have titled Paste, Pencils, Scissors and Crayons. 

You need:

• two pieces of paper of contrasting colors (one or both of which could be black and/or white, but needn't be.)
• Scrap pieces in the same contrasting colors
• pencil
• scissors
• glue

A silhouette lesson is fun and highly decorative BUT it is not an easy lesson to present without a few sample silhouettes to use as examples.  So before you try to introduce the silhouette concept, I would highly recommend that you take the time to locate some samples or better yet, make a few yourself.

When teaching how to do a silhouette, rememer these basic ideas....

1. Silhouettes need a low groundline.

2. Some views make better silhouettes than others-with people and animals, sideviews are generally better.   Some complicated things like houses are best translated into simple views. You can't really put much detail into a silhouette.

3. Also point out to your class that silhouettes can be just as easily done with white on black as with black on white. 

4. When you have finished paving the way, turn your class loose on a silhouette of their own invention.  The results will delight you.

Halloween time is a very popular time to do silhouettes.  Just think of all the cats, bats, ghosts, haunted houses, witch profile in the moon, & jack-o-lanterns.  I think it would even be cool to do a few leaves at the end of a small branch for fall, or a side view of a turkey for thanksgiving.

Good luck!

Great Examples

The Gray Tree by Piet Mondrian

"Negative space need not be boring.  This tree is a great example of that.  Mondrian attracts our attention  to the negative areas with this brushwork, an makes these shapes as much the subject of the painting as the form of the tree."
-Design Basics

By Piet Mondrian

This piece by Piet Mondrian is a fun example of shape.  If you think your students would like to do something like this the book How to Teach Art to Children has instructions on how to do so on pages 112 & 113.

     The Violin by Juan Gris

This piece of the Violin is excellent to show what shape can do in art.  Notice the amount of rectangles.  Then just by using the one object with rounded sides (the violin) he makes that his focal point. It is the first thing your eye looks at. How simple.

These three drawings by Gorges Seurat are demonstrating three types of positive/negative shapes with shading.  If you are interested in teaching a little more on this type of an idea, I would be happy to help you out, just let me know.

Negative Space Leaves

Go to this link to find out how to do this fun leaf assignment.

Leaf Silhouettes by Robert A. Sloan

Negative Shape/Space Lesson

Today I am going to give you plenty of examples of what this is.

When I first started teaching students about negative shape I would use my hands as an example.   

After making a heart shape with my hands I asked them what they shape they could see.

Changing my hands position I asked them what they now could see.

Heart and Heart should have been the answers.

Negative shape in art is a lot like that. 

The artist works on the space around the shape that they would like you to really see.  Usually in the negative shape or space there is no drawing or coloring.  It is just a blank space.

Can you see the vase?  Now can you see the man's profile in the negative space?
The vase is the postitive space and the profiles are in the negative space.

In this example what is the negative space?  The cat or the dog?
The dog is the positive space and the cat is the negative space.

This is another example of negative shape/space.  The 2 & 3 are the negative space but they are very easy to see.  Can you see how those numbers are part of the background?  The space around any object being painted or drawn is negative space.

The black cat in this picture is in the negative space, because it part of the background.

The picture of this girl is an excellent example of positive and negative shapes.  

If you follow this link it could teach you a little more about shape.

This is a famous logo that uses negative space.  

The peacocks neck and beak are what you see as negative shape.

This chair has negative space of a very comfortable chair, but the actual sitting of the chair may be very uncomfortable.

The great challenge now is to try to get your students to use negative space in their art.  

I have posted an example of a haunted house that I did with a third grade class last year. 

Scroll down and check it out.

"Lines create the outline of shapes.  Each time a line outlines a shape, it is really creating two images: the positive one and a negative one." -How to Teach Art to Children


If you were to think about maybe what a negative shape would be, what would you see?

Resources

If you Art Moms are feeling like I am not able to give you enough resources, don't forget that in the Little Red School House at the school I have put a book to give you all more help.  I just ask one thing, Please put it back when you are through with it so that others may have the opportunity to utilize it if they need.  Thank you.  I posted a picture of it so that you may know what it looks like when you go to look for it.

         I love this book.  It has given me tons and tons of ideas of how to teach art to kids.  And everything is written so that it was easy for me to go and teach.  I also love the many, many, many pictures in it so that I can understand what they are talking about.  Good luck and have fun!

Halloween Negative Shape

 Last year I worked with a third grade class and in October we did a fun Shape activity.    First I taught the kids about positive and negative shapes (I will post a lesson on that in a bit.) then we made a haunted house using that concept.  I gave each child three pieces of  construction paper, one large black (house), one large purple (background), and 1/2 of an orange piece (accents, i.e. pumpkin, ghost, moon). I had a lot of fun seeing what each child produced and all of the pieces looked pretty scary.  I think the kids were pretty impressed with their work as well!

This was my example I showed them.

The door, sidewalk, and grass are all negative shape/space.  The moon, cat, house, ghost and pumpkin are all positive shapes/space.