Op Art Octahedrons

Grade Level

Duration

5-10 days

Materials

Black Sharpies, Black Micron Pens, Pencils, White Prisma Pencils, Railroad board, Glue or double-sided tape, Scissors, x-acto knife, and ruler

Media

Mixed media

Lesson Objectives

Students will…
• analyze how artists use elements like line, pattern, and color to create illusions in visual imagery.
• produce a work of art that deceives the eye by appearing to have motion, depth, or other visual effects.
• practice using tools like rulers and techniques like shading and blending to create precise effects.
• visualize how a flat pattern will transform into a 3D object.
• cut and fold with precision and good craftsmanship to assemble the flat railroad board into a solid form.

Introductory Activity

The teacher and students spent a couple of days on line characteristics (line direction, line quality, line weight) and practiced manipulating lines. Students were exposed to Optical Art, the history, and characteristics of this art movement.

Students practiced creating optical art designs using tutorial sheets to see the step-by-step process. Students used their computers to look up more ideas independently.

Lesson Process

Introduce students to the flat template for the octahedra. The teacher demonstrates how to transfer the template onto the railroad board, cut out the design, score the lines for folding, and finally create and secure the 3D form.

Once the teacher demonstrates the construction of the octahedron, students decide whether to cover the entire surface with one op art design, use eight different designs, or repeat two or more designs. All work was done in pencil first, then inked over with Sharpie and Microns. White prisma pencils were used for highlights, and a pencil for shading, which could improve the illusions. Lastly, students created a stand from a strip of black paper stapled into a ring.

The teacher who submitted the lesson comments wrote, “It’s always a successful project, giving students a confidence boost and the motivation to tackle future projects.”

Vocabulary

op art, optical art, template, scoring, positive, negative patterns

Resources

The lesson does not have worksheets, but these resources found online are appropriate
Op Art tutorial 1
Op Art tutorial 2 (YouTube)
Op Art tutorial 3
Teacher slide show PDF
Template*
*The template is on an 18×24 artboard. To tile the PDF template for printing, open the document in Adobe Acrobat or Reader, go to the File > Print menu, and select the Poster option under the “Page Sizing & Handling” section. You can then adjust the Tile Scale to set the overall size of the document and the Overlap to create guidelines for piecing the printed pages together. Additional options include adding Cut Marks and Labels for easier assembly.