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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Does Negative Space Have A Shape?
Students observe negative space in drawing. In this negative space lesson plan, students discover that sketches include negative space or background. Students produce a drawing while paying attention to the negative space.
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Fraggle Monster Vase
Students 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. Students create an original piece of art.
Curated OER
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.
National Gallery of Canada
Cybermuse: Prints and Drawings in Inuit Art
Ten Inuit artists and their work are surveyed. There are lesson plans that study animism, drawing and stenciling, and printmaking. You can use the timeline to see the chronological history of this period and also juxtapose images with...
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Art Appreciation: Unit 3: Technical Aspects of Art
In this third unit of a course on Art Appreciation, students learn how to describe the technical aspects of an artist's work by discussing elements of art and principles of design. They also look at the stylistic qualities of an artist's...
Marilyn J. Brackney
Imagination Factory: Carve a Free Form Sculpture
Instructions on how to carve a small sculpture using plaster of Paris, a table knife and spoon. Also included is background information on the emergence of modern sculpture.
McGraw Hill
My Art Studio: Elements of Art: Face/vase
Explanation of the use of positive and negative space to define figures in a composition.
Goshen College
Learning to Draw by Learning the Basic Seeing Skills
Ideas taken from the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" are outlined here. This article discusses seven concepts that students need to be able to do to master the art of drawing.
Goshen College
Learning to Draw by Learning the Basic Seeing Skills
Ideas taken from the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" are outlined here. This article discusses seven concepts that students need to be able to do to master the art of drawing.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Arts Connect Ed Artist's Toolkit: Positive and Negative Space
An interactive site that explores the elements and principles of visual art through the artist's toolkit. This lesson is on positive and negative space, and the artwork studied is from Katharina Fritsch.
ArtLex
Art Lex: Shape
This online dictionary of art from Artlex provides terms is a valuable tool. Shape is on the Sg-Sh page. Just scroll down to Shape and read a definition with links to other important terms.
Other
Computer Art Using Ms Paint
A site by Diana Hunter, an educator in Indiana. This site uses common software in PCs to introduce the use of computers in making art. There are lessons on design, Tessellations, Butterflies, Piet Mondrian, Landscapes with Spraypaint,...
Quia
Quia: Drawing Activity
This is a terrific set of activities related to art instruction. Includes matching, concentration, flashcards, and a word search. Great for art students looking for a fun way to review vocabulary terms.