Art@Booksin
Art@Booksin
Op Art
Docent Material & Setup List:
• Give each student:
• 1 paper
• 1 black sharpie
• 1 scrap paper
• Give each table :
1. Basket of colored pencils (complementary colors)
2. Basket of charcoal pencils
Docent Clean up List:
• Make sure names are on artwork
• Place completed in your folders, with a sheet of newspaper between each
paper to prevent smudging (if charcoal was used)
• Wipe down tables, refill any items and return handouts and materials to bins
as you found them – thanks for doing this and leading the lesson!
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Op Art
Lesson 7 – 4th Grade
Art@Booksin
Op Art
Today’s Lesson
• Today you are going to
create your op art using
pencil and charcoal to recreate this art style.
• You will learn about two
famous artists Victor
Vasarely and Bridget Riley.
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Skill Development:
• Introduction to pencil
and charcoal.
• You will learn how to:
• Use pressure to
create depth in your
art work
• Shading techniques
What is Op Art?
• The Op art movement was driven by
artists who were interested in
• When something plays tricks
investigating various perceptual
on your eyes it is called an
effects.
Optical Illusion… Op Art is
artwork that plays tricks on
• This instituted a new relationship
our eyes
between artist and spectator – the
observer cannot remain passive –
you are free to interpret the image in
as many ways as you can imagine.
• The pinnacle of the movement's
success was 1965, when the
Museum of Modern Art embraced
the style with the exhibition The
Responsive Eye.
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Who is Victor Vasarely?
He is considered the
inventor of Op-Art.
• He is Hungarian-French.
• His work entitled Zebra,
created in the 1930s, is
considered by some to be one
of the earliest examples of
Optical art.
• Vasarely went on to produce
paintings and sculptures
mainly focused on optical
illusion
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Famous works by Victor Vasarely?
‘Encelade’
c. 1960
Victor Vasarely
• Using geometric forms in
black and white he has
created a multi dimensional image that
encourages our eyes to
jump around the
composition. What shapes
do you see?
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Who is Bridget Riley?
‘Blaze’, Bridget Riley, 1964
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• She is an English painter who is
one of the foremost proponents
of Op art.
• During the 1960s she began to
paint the black and white works
for which she is well known.
• They present a variety of
geometric forms that produce
sensations of movement or
color.
‘Movement in squares’,
1961
Bridget Riley
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Let’s get started…
Supplies Needed :
•
•
•
•
•
Paper
Pencil (for name)
Black sharpie
Charcoal
Scrap paper (to
prevent smudging
the charcoal)
• Colored pencils
‘Descending’
Bridget Riley,1965-6
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Op Art Shading Bubbles
Process:
• Start by drawing a curved
line using your black sharpie
across the paper. Think
rolling hill... not roller
coaster!
• Add 8 dots across the line.
• They should be at different
lengths apart.
• You need a dot close to the
edges of your paper.
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Op Art Shading Bubbles
• Start connecting the dots with
bumps.
• The dots close to the edge will go
off the edge of the paper to an
imaginary dot.
• The lines will eventually go off the
top and bottom of the paper . Fill
the whole paper.
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Op Art Shading Bubbles
• Pick 3 colors you feel work
well together – IF not Black
and white.
• Press the pencil harder in
the corners so you get a
deeper color ... and as you
get near the top of each
bump get lighter and
lighter.
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Op Art Shading Bubble examples:
PRACTICAL LESSON PLAN ADAPTED FROM
MRSBROWN.COM
By Tara Button
January 2016
Art@Booksin