National Gallery of Canada
The Changing Composition
Play with dimensions and practice making a two-dimensional scene look three-dimensional. Class members view pieces of art and then make their own scenes by layering different materials and drawing in details. Check out all the tabs for...
National Gallery of Canada
My Upside-Down World!
M.C. Escher is famous for creating optical illusions. Examine this effect in several of his works and discuss the techniques involved. Inspired by the discussion, learners create an imaginary 3-D world inside of a box using various...
Curated OER
Landscape Painting
Third graders paint a landscape that demonstrates the illusion of space. In this visual arts lesson, 3rd graders paint a creek with reflections as the focus and include images showing foreground, middle ground, and background...
Curated OER
Drawing Lessons
Seventh graders complete a visual acts project that focuses on eye level, center of vision, station point, cone of vision, vanishing points, true height, and drawing a box in two point perspective. They work on a number of still life...
Curated OER
An Introduction To Pictorial Space
Students draw a picture of a landscape using techniques that create the illusion of space. They then transform this landscape drawing into a three-dimensional form, which depicts a mood or an emotion.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Eye-Popping Op Art
Students examine and discuss work of Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely, recognize visual components of Op Art, compare traditional Renaissance perspective with Op Art's illusion of three-dimensional space, and create original painting...
LABScI
Vision Lab: The Eye
Our bodies have some amazing capabilities, but there are some limitations. Explore the limitations of the human eye through the eighth lab activity in a series of 12 biology lessons. Individuals measure their own peripheral vision...
Curated OER
Horse of a Different Color: An Introduction to Color in the Visual Arts
Students identify ways in which the artist uses color to draw the view's attention to points within the composition and creates a sense of depth. They discuss the effect of color on the tone and mood of an artwork.
Curated OER
Fraggle Monster Vase
Middle schoolers create an optical illusion. In this optical illusions lesson plan, 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.
Digital Wish
2D Project: Deep Space
Using a digital camera, Photoshop, and a desktop paint program, learners will explore perspective techniques. They apply perspective techniques to develop depth illusions within a scene. The lesson employs both traditional art and...
Curated OER
Concepts Of Spacial Depth
Students create a dynamic composition by repeatedly drawing found objects using the techniques of perspective, diminishing scale, and receding lines. This lesson includes rubric for assessment.
Curated OER
Views of the American West: True or False?
Learners explain that a landscape painting may or may not accurately represent a specific place. They identify techniques that create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface.
Curated OER
Horse of a Different Color: An Introduction to Color in the Visual Arts
Students examine how artists use color to create a sense of depth in a two-dimensional space. They view and analyze prints, complete worksheets, and write a paragraph on how color is used to draw the viewer's eye to a central figure.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Narrating a Family Tradition
After examining a piece of art, scholars discuss what they see, paying close attention to details and space. A read-aloud introduces the topic of family traditions. Pupils interview their family members about a tradition in preparation...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature—Lesson 1
Art learners examine still-life arrangement images and respond to a series of prompts. In a whole-class discussion, pupils list elements and qualities that still-life paintings can have. After instructors create an arrangement and model...
Curated OER
Stations of Light
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. Young scholars...
Curated OER
Introduction to Curve Stitching - Line Designs
Students develop their awareness that straight line segments can produce the illusion of a curve and helps them recognize and describe number patterns and geometric fundamentals.
Curated OER
Dimensional Space: Various Perspectives
Students use their understanding of 3D on 2D to make a representation of a 4D form on paper.
Oglebay Institute
Post-Impressionism: Mosaic Still-life
A still life with tissue paper? Why not! Using Paul Cézanne's art as inspiration, learners create their own still life pictures by gluing various colors of tissue paper onto a paper or pattern.
Curated OER
Exploring the Deep: Creating Space and Distance
Students explore perspective and color techniques to create the illusion of three-dimensional space in two-dimensional works. They create three-dimensional landscapes.
Curated OER
Cast of characters -- Lost in Space Lesson
Students examine how artists use the picture plane to depict two and three dimensions. They view online images, discuss how space is used to depict three-dimensional space, and create a painting.
Curated OER
The Rise of Landscape Painting
Students study the rise of landscape art throughout the 19th century and the specific features of the genre. In this landscape art instructional activity, students read the definition of landscape art and its precedence in the 19th...
Curated OER
Mixed Media Weaving
Students will demonstrate the ability to create the illusion of space by overlapping shapes.They will recognize the differences between art materials, techniques, and processes. Students will demonstrate the influence of personal...