line, shape, form, space, texture, value and colour
Otherwise known as the Elements of Art. I've always somewhat struggled with teaching these concepts in a fun and interesting way. I find as soon as I start to mention the phrase 'the elements of art', some students (well, high school students) start to tune out and their eyes glaze over. Some are not keen to learn anything 'academic', so to speak, about Art.
Nonetheless, I forge ahead and tell them it's important to know these because knowing the elements will allow them to analyze, appreciate, write and chat about art, as well as being of help when they create art.
In this project, I had Grade 10 and 11 students cut and assemble a cube (just Google Image "cube template", print a copy, then photocopy) out of cardstock, and in each of the squares, they needed to visually represent one of the elements. They don't need to include form because the cube itself is the form! (plus, a cube only has six sides and I needed 7, so told the kids just to omit form... heh, heh)
The kids could use any media they wanted.
The biggest challenge with this project, for most students,
was accurate cutting (with a ruler and x-acto knife) and folding (scoring) of the cube.
Here is one example viewed from all sides:
shape
line
colour
space
texture (used salt)
this student made his using digital photos- very precise and professional cutting.
 |
| coloured pencils and markers |
Hello! I teach a middle school art enrichment class, so I struggle with how "academic" to make it also, and I really like this idea. Do you happen to have the cube template you could upload and post?! :) Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteHi Hillary, I added a link above (click on 'template') to a cube template. I printed them onto cardstock for durability.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the project!
The link isn't working. Could you re-post it?
ReplyDeleteHi Ash,
ReplyDeleteSorry about the dead link. I updated my post- just Google Image "cube template" and choose one to print. They're all pretty much the same.