Time Duration: 1 class period

Unit Title: Drawing/Painting

Lesson Topic: Shape

Objectives of Lesson

Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Identify geometric and organic shapes & positive and negative shapes.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of shape by completing assigned projects.

Materials Needed

1. Sketchbook, drawing pencil, and eraser.

2. Shape, Elements of Design poster.

3. Construction paper, scissors, and glue sticks.

Instructional Procedure with Approximate Time Line

1. Anticipatory Set (5 minutes)

Shape is an area that is contained within an implied line, or is seen and identified because of color or value changes. Shapes have two dimensions, length and width, and can be geometric or organic.

Shapes are either positive or negative. The subject in a representational, or realistic, work is usually the positive shape, and the background is the negative shape. In abstract or nonobjective art, positive shapes are usually central or featured elements; negative shapes surround them. Abstraction often reduces things to their simplest shapes.

All shapes can be described with two basic terms: geometric shapes (such as squares, triangles, or rectangles); and organic shapes (free-form or curvilinear). Shapes in nature are usually organic: leaves, trees, mountains, clouds, animals, etc.

2. Activities (30 minutes)

Activities are to be done on separate sketchbook pages, not back to back.

• From six different colored sheets of paper, cut six different organic shapes varying the size of the shapes. From the same sheets of paper, cut six different geometric shapes varying the sizes of each shape. Arrange all the organic shapes on the lower half of your sketchbook page and glue them down. Arrange the geometric shapes on the upper half and glue them down. Title your page "Organic and Geometric Shapes".
• Lightly draw three different figure shapes (each one should be at least three inches tall) in a series of movements on different colored papers. Vary the sizes of the figure shapes. Cut them out, then place them on your sketchbook page from smallest (farthest away and highest) to largest (closest and lowest on page). Figure shapes should be slightly overlapped. Glue them down. Lastly, label the positive shapes and the negative shapes. Title your page "Positive and Negative Shapes".

3. Assessment

0 points = Activity not completed or not found. Activity done incorrectly or no title.

5 points = Activity done partly correct. Improve and turn in again.

10 points = Activity correct. Student demonstrates understanding of the concept.

Lesson taken from Elements and Principles of Design posters, Teacher’s Guide, Crystal Productions.