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Teach your students the essential elements of design using Adobe PhotoShop to create pleasing compositions.
It seems everyone has dabbled in PhotoShop to color-correct and/or crop photos, but you can also use the image manipulation software to teach the elements of design that are necessary to learning how to create a successful art composition. The elements of design include shape, color, line, texture, value, repetition and contrast. I compare learning visual art composition to learning to juggle. We learn one element at a time and continue to add elements as the school year progresses so that by the end of the class students can effectively juggle all of the design elements to create a successful and pleasing art composition every time. I start with shape to teach the elements of design. I ask the students to create a new PhotoShop document and show them how to create circles, squares, and triangles using the Ellipse tool. (This also serves to teach the Ellipse tool.) Ask students to practice moving their shapes around on the PhotoShop document and show how to use the Move tool to rearrange shapes. For now, and to eliminate introducing two elements at once, ask your students to use black shapes on a white surface. (Color is a complicated element and deserves to have its own lesson - or two or three - devoted just to color theory.) You can also show students how to manipulate the shapes to make them smaller or larger using Edit, Transform, Scale. Make sure you specify that they may not create a representational composition. In other words, it may not look like a flower or face. They are to arrange their shapes to create an abstract or non-representational composition. This part is important. Have your students print out their compositions or place them up on their computer screens and ask students to discuss and evaluate the tentative art compositions. Ask your students, which composition is the most pleasing? And then the big question, why? Call attention to the negative shapes and spaces created with the art composition, also. This part can be frustrating for students. They don't want to criticize their peers or appear critical, but it is indeed an essential part of improving their visual analysis. By focusing on what works and why, you are also calling less attention to the art compositions that are not as successful but not slamming them for being lesser. It is important to focus on the positive to give students a sense of confidence in composition. Anyone can create a PhotoShop document, but learning the elements of design is absolutely essential to learning the foundation of what differentiates art from just another homework assignment. What's next? Next lesson: line.
The copyright of the article PhotoShop Teaches Art in Art & Society is owned by Mary Rayme. Permission to republish PhotoShop Teaches Art in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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