Elements & Principles of Design Scavenger Hunt

 Description: 

After learning about the Principles and Elements of Design, the students were asked to take photos of each element/principle. Then, they were asked to present the images and say why the images matched that specific element/principle. Finally, the students chose their top five favorite photos to ellaborate more on in their blogs.

Space- Space is the area around, between, within, or inside objects. Artists think of space as “room” that everything exists in and can be perceived through depth. There is positive space (area taken up by main objects) and negative space (the empty area around the main objects).

Rhythm/Movement- Rhythm and movement in art is how your eyes travel through the picture. This can be created by using repeating shapes, colors, or lines the will guide your eyes across the picture. For example, swirls on your page create a guide for your eyes to follow.

Contrast- Contrast in art means showing differences that will stand out. Contrast can be used to draw someone's attention to certain parts of the artwork. For example, black and white or big and small.

Color- Color is what we see when light bounces off objects and reaches our eyes. There are three main groups of colors: primary (red, blue, and yellow), secondary (green, purple, or orange), and intermediate (blue-green, red-orange, yellow-orange, and blue-violet). We also have warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) and cool colors (blue, green, and purple). And, we have complimentary colors (green and red, blue and orange, and purple and yellow).

Balance- Balance is how the parts of a picture are arranged to that it can feel complete or even. There are two types of balance: symmetrical and asymmetrical. Symmetrical is when both sides of a picture look the same. For example, a butterfly’s wings Assymetrical is when the two sides are different but they are arranged in a way that creates that feeling of equalness without them being identical. For example, a drawing of a large dark shape on one side and multiple smaller, lighters shapes on the other

Elements & Principles Presentation

Extension Activity:

An extension activity you could do to help students in the grades 3rd through 5th to learn the elements and principles of art include: first teaching them the vocabulary, then showing them a variety of photos of famous artworks, and have them try to match the vocab words to the pictures. For example, the image of "Starry Night" would have lines, color, texture, movement/rhythm, balance, and emphasis. The students could then create their own piece of art using the elements and principles of design.