Op Art

Optical Illusions

Students Make Op Art using Rulers, Compasses and Marker

I like to start my students off with projects that refresh them on basic motor skills as well as introducing them to the Elements and Principles of Art and Design.  Our current project focuses on the use of a ruler and a compass to give the illusion of depth and form through the use of space and perspective.  In short, we're creating our own Optical Illusions (or Op Art, if you will). 

We started off by talking about space and perspective and how you can tell if something is in the foreground, middleground or background in two-dimensional artwork. We talked mainly about size, shading and location of objects in the frame. Then we set to give our own illusion of form (something three-dimensional) through the use of sizing, spacing and varying angles and curve of line. We worked together to create a one point perspective drawing in a manner that we would still be able to achieve our Op Art style.  The students chose whether they wanted to color them in with marker or colored pencil and started by coloring their background (pictured above).  We then worked on coloring our "forms" or "globes/spheres" to keep with the illusion.  For a quickly drawn step by step tutorial of how we draw them, click here.

As you can see below, the result is mesmerizing!