Art in Education
Visual Art Curriculum for Students Third Grade and Above
Lesson One: Introduction
Art is universal communication. All people of all languages can express themselves and understand others through art.
Discuss general rules of composition, especially the concept of "filling the frame."
Become familiar with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals:
- End extreme poverty and hunger.
- Achieve universal primary education.
- Empower women and promote gender equality.
- Improve child health.
- Improve maternal health.
- Combat diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.
- Ensure environmental sustainability.
- Develop a global partnership for development.
For more information, visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.
Assignment: Create a name card that expresses your personality.
Line variety and line direction. Horizontal lines are restful; vertical lines have potential for movement; diagonal lines are active. Using bold, straight, squiggly, soft, or faint lines can help express feelings in your artwork.
Assignment: Take a word related to the UN Millennium Goals (for example: peace, hunger)
and illustrate it with a variety of lines. The goal is for the viewer to see the image and know what it says without having to read the word.
Lesson Three
Discussion of value: shadows, midtones, highlights.
Assignment: Use words and sentences to shade the values of a picture related to the UN Millennium Goals. Leave the lightest values blank to let the white paper create highlights; write the words many times over to create progressively darker values.
Lesson Four
Discussion of color, the color wheel, and different color schemes.
Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. Secondary colors are made by combining primary colors - orange, green, and purple. Complementary colors are opposites on the color wheel. In every color scheme, you can use many shades (darker values) and tints (lighter values) of one hue (color).
Four basic color schemes: Monochromatic - one hue only. Analogous - two to three hues that are next to each other on the color wheel. Complementary - two hues that are opposite one another on the color wheel. Split complementary - one main hue, accented by the two hues on either side of its complement on the color wheel.
Assignment: Simplify an image and color with one of the four learned color schemes.
Lesson Five
Discussion of colors' connotations and ability to express feelings.
Assignment: Create an appropriate color scheme for a simplified black-and-white picture.
The Last Class can be used to discuss lessons learned, answer questions, and finish all projects.