National Gallery of Art
Impressive Prints
Explore printmaking with a discussion and project. Pupils first view and talk about various examples of prints and cover positive and negative space. They then come up with fictional animals and make prints of their creature using...
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Positive/Negative Bugs
Bugs can be creepy - and fun! Kids create a positive and negative design by repeatedly drawing a simple insect overlaid with a geometric shape. The outcome is really neat and will help build spacial reasoning, visual acuteness, and...
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Graphite Embossing
Teach your art class a lesson on viewing positive and negative space in multiple dimensions. They will use metal sheets and various pencil grades to apply the graphite embossing technique. This project will result in two contrasting images.
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Advanced Scribble Pictures
Scribble art allows learners of any age to problem solve in order to express their creative thinking skills. They create a simple scribble, then elaborate on it by adding color and shape. Full instructions and extensions are included.
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Monet and Impressionism
Monet is a great artist to study and impressionism is a wonderful art style to practice. Learners read about Monet then attempt to use impressionist painting techniques. Book and image links are included.
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Does Negative Space Have A Shape?
Students observe negative space in drawing. In this negative space lesson, students discover that sketches include negative space or background. Students produce a drawing while paying attention to the negative space.
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Still Life
Students investigate still-life drawings. In this visual arts lesson, students draw each other pretending to be frozen making sure that they do not simply see the object as the object, but seeing the drawing as the negative space around...
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Fraggle Monster Vase
Middle schoolers create an optical illusion. In this optical illusions lesson, students sketch a monster's face to create the optical illusion of a vase in the positive space. Middle schoolers create an original piece of art.
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Positive & Negative Space
Pupils review and differentiate between positive and negative space, view teacher sample, and cut out shapes to create puzzle-like picture in which one color of paper represents positive space and one color represents negative space.