Covering art's bases - art projects

Arts & Activities, Sept, 2002 by Peter Hiller

The elements of art and principles of design are the building blocks of art. Understanding these terms is fundamental to our students' ability to add depth to the work they create as they progress through an art program.

As evidence of their importance, the California State Visual and Performing Arts Framework includes two pages that provide definitions of these concepts (see sidebars). Goal Two under the Artistic Perception Component of the guidelines states that, beginning in kindergarten, "... students identify visual structures and functions of art, using the language of the visual arts."

The integration of these ideas, in one form or another, usually starts when art education begins, even as early as preschool. What teacher--of even the youngest student--hasn't pointed out to them their use of something as basic as color in their work?

The names of the elements and principles and their definitions vary slightly depending on the reference source that is used, however, they all are basically the same. These ideas can be introduced in a variety of manners and are actually present in virtually all art projects. In some cases the concepts can be taught in a singular manner; at other times the ideas can be combined with one another. As students get older, the approach to the concepts should get more sophisticated as the students' depth of understanding will become greater.

Following are several projects that are intended to focus on the elements and principles found in art. They can easily be adapted for various ages and, in most cases, the choice of materials is flexible.

1. ISOLATING AN ELEMENT This simple project involves each student finding a picture (we use old magazines) that has a clear example of any of the elements; a variety of ideas among the class is helpful. They then cut a small window in a separate, larger sheet of folded paper and glue or tape the element picture on the inside so only a part of the image shows through the window. These finished "folders" can be passed around so all class members can identify the dement. To add to the project, students guess the entire hidden image.

2. ARTIST BOOK My students had the opportunity to produce a book that explored the career of regional artist, Armin Hansen. The intention of the book was to explore the dements of art and principles of design through Hansen's work. Whereas this was probably a once-in-a-career opportunity, the process is valuable without needing to go so far as to actually publish the results.

This assignment is a wonderful means for integrating art history into the curriculum. As a class project the work can be accomplished by having each child select a picture featuring a reproduction of a work of art. They then point out and define the elements present, in writing, and create an activity designed to help a viewer understand the concepts. It is also a perfect chance to research and write about the artist responsible for the source material. The results can be presented on a nicely formatted paper that can be laminated and used over and over again.

3. ELEMENTS COLLAGES (a) In this project, students look through magazines and cut out examples of the various elements and principles that they find and then arrange them as a collage. They label each picture to ensure their understanding.

(b) Our art room is partially decorated by collages that are the result of small groups of students working together to find numerous pictures, also from magazines, that illustrate an individual element or principle. These pictures are glued down to a large sheet of construction paper and the sheets are labeled with the name of the concept. This class project becomes an asset for the rest of my students as it is a visual aid for all of my classes to see and refer to.

4. DEMONSTRATING ELEMENTS This project is the most time-consuming and demanding on students, but also has the most depth to it. Students begin by picking an image that depicts the various elements of art. This can be a photo brought from home, something from a magazine or a color photocopy from a book. Keep in mind that this picture will be mounted on the final project. The students will "use" this image throughout the project so it should be something that they really like.

The next part of the project is to render the chosen image, using pencil, on a separate piece of paper, showing only its lines. This requires the kids to see the line element and isolate and reproduce it as a pure idea. After the pencil drawing is finished, they go over the lines in ink so the lines are more obvious.

The next step is a perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of value by shading in parts of a like drawing with different grades of pencils. The students can either start this with a new drawing, trace the one they already made or even photocopy the first one to save time. They look for the different values in the original image and by using various types of graphite pencils (we use 4H, H and HB) they shade in their drawing based on the light and dark areas of the original, thus demonstrating the various values.