Principles of Visual Art

What?

I have learned that every principle of art has a use in any one picture. Each principle is important, and adds as much to a work of art as any of the others. For example, balance in a picture is imperative, but artists all have different ways of balancing their artworks (or photographs); they also use the other principles in different ways (e.g. some use “incorrect” proportions to help tell the picture’s story, or unite the picture in bizarre and interesting ways.)

Using children’s book illustrators as examples is probably one of the best ways to introduce the principles of visual art. This is because CB illustrators create several works of art that are then bound into a book to tell (or help tell) a story. Not only do students have several examples of all the principles at their fingertips, but because it is a children’s book, they can also see how pictures and stories go hand-in-hand; in fact, in some CB’s, the pictures are the only thing you have to tell you the story.

So What?

Well, I thought the activity we did in class to learn about CB illustrators was a perfect way to teach and learn about different artists and the Principles of Visual Art. Researching the artist, his/her artwork, some of the books they’ve illustrated, and the techniques they used, was a lot of fun and very informative. Teaching that information to the class was a way to cement the information into our minds, and to learn about the other groups’ illustrators. This would make an easy opening to any unit about historical artists (such as Da Vinci and Van Gogh).

Now What?

Personally, I think that discovering fun, informational activities like this in our teaching program can reflect on how I teach my students in the future. Lessons I enjoyed learning I can adapt to fit my students’ age-group, such as slightly altering the lesson/activity we had in class, and then giving my future students a similar one. In fact, almost any lesson I learn now, I can turn into a lesson I teach them!