5th Graders knocked it out of the park with this lesson!! I’m super proud of their hard work! 

Students really LOVED it too and couldn’t believe it could be created using just sharpies, and colored pencils. More on this below!

This lesson took about 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete. 

ON DAY 1: Students were introduced to various OP Art by artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, and learned what Op art was (Optical Illusion Art) with a quick slideshow of work. 

Six straight lines that intersect at the same spot, were drawn ahead of time on 80# 10×10″ paper for each student with a ruler; Creating 12 “slices” in total. 

After kids got their papers, I demonstrated under a document camera as they followed along with me for the first step. 

Students then drew a series of concentric curved lines alternating the direction of the curve within each “slice”. 

Once finished with that step, students labeled every OTHER slice with a “B” lightly in pencil, to mark that space as black.

This step helps speed things along as kids color in– (just locate the ones labeled “B”), AND reduces any potential mistakes while using Sharpie. 

Once that’s all set, students then started tracing over the smallest slices labeled “B” in the center, using a extra fine point Sharpie, (so it wouldn’t bleed too much into the small white sections), then filled in. 

As areas got larger, kids switched to a Fine Point Sharpie, (since it has a thicker tip), and colored in the rest. 

These 2 steps took about 2- (40 minute) classes to complete. 

ON DAY 3, I discussed the element of art VALUE with students and showed them how to create subtle value changes.

Then I demonstrated the next step —using a black colored pencil in the white areas to create shading and shadows, and a white colored pencil in the black areas to create highlights. 

Before students started this on their own artwork, I had them practice first on black and white papers. 

I explained to students it’s important to draw the lines close together. 

It’s also key to press harder with the white in the center, and gradually get lighter and lighter as the white gets closer to the edges of each slice, leaving a bit of black showing along the sides. 

Then, using the black colored pencil in just the white areas, they drew darkest along the sides and gradually pressed lighter and lighter towards the center—leaving the center strip white!

Students loved seeing the 3D effect start to emerge!! 

Here is my step-by-step video tutorial on this lesson

This is my first you tube tutorial (eep!) I’ve ever created….This is all a bit daunting to me, so please be kind as I’m excited (and NERVOUS!) about creating art tutorial videos. But it’s a goal of mine as an educator to try it out, and my hope is to get better and better at it -eventually adding additional art tutorial videos in the future! 

https://youtu.be/pZmahmdqee8

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