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Lesson Plan Image

Radiant Shapes

Artists use various techniques to achieve interesting effects. Students will explore how colors and organic shapes can blend to appear artistic and radiant. 

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Heavy Paper
  • Paper
  • Tissues or Tissue Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Artists use various techniques to soften edges in art. For example, a scene may appear more realistic if there is a smooth transition between the land and the horizon in landscape paintings. In close-up scenes, softening edges can convey subtle contours in portraits that impact the portrayal of the subject's personality.

  • Step 2

    To practice a technique that softens edges, have students experiment with organic shapes. First ask them to sketch an outline for each shape and then  cut the shapes out of heavy paper, so they can be used as templates multiple times. After the class has created a variety of shapes that can be shared, they will place an individual shape on plain paper and trace around it, pressing firmly with an oil pastel. To create art that has a variety of shapes, students would swap templates with other students.  After they have a page full of shapes they will soften the edges by gently pushing some of the color away from the shape's edge to spread it in a radiant manner. They could push the color outwards with a finger tip or tissue (which gives a glowing appearance) or inwards (which represents a energy within the shape.)

  • Step 3

    Have students present their art and discuss how blending colors helped achieve an interesting artistic effect.

Standards

ARTS: Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art. 

ARTS: Explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches. 

Adaptations

Have students view examples of artwork that exemplify the color blending technique. Suggestions include "The Monk by the Sea" (1808-1810) by Caspar David Friedrich, "Impression, Sunrise (1872) by Claude Monet, or any others.

Have students experiment with other art techniques such as impasto (applying thick layers of paint that retain visible brushstrokes to achieve texture), wet-on-wet painting (applying wet paint to an already wet painted surface so the colors bleed into each other), Chiaroscuro (strongly contrasting light and dark to create dramatic effects), etc.