KS3 Art – Op Art Home Learning Project

Posted on by art_teacher_mcr

I have made this home learning KS3 Op Art project for our Year 7 students to work on during lockdown, but it could easily be used for Year 8 or Year 9 (or maybe even art cover lessons?). I have been teaching these Op Art lessons online via Google Classroom.

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Op Art KS3 lesson home learning project

I have designed this Op Art scheme of learning with the aim of students being able to get involved at home without needing a lot of equipment. So I have purposefully not used fineliners or shading pencils, but you could easily include these options as ‘add-ons’ if you want.

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This home learning / lockdown op art project is split up into four different ‘lessons’, each with a short starting activity, a bit of information and a main task. I will be teaching this online so I needed to design it so I could talk over the presentation and allow students to pause / use the chat function during the lesson (I use Loom to record lessons).

Op Art KS3 lesson home learning project task 1

The first lesson introduces the basics of Op Art and asks students to respond by choosing an artist to research. I have included 3 artists but they can always go away and find their own. I have also included a video about Victor Vasarely (I wanted to discuss scale with my students).

Op Art KS3 lesson 2 home learning project colour theory

The second lesson introduces some of the key features of op art – basic shapes, repeated / rotated shapes etc. It asks students to do a small drawing then have a go at their own bigger piece. I have recorded a demo and decided not to speed it up, it is the full length so students can follow along at the same time.

Op Art KS3 lesson home learning project complementary colour scheme
Op Art KS3 lesson home learning project shading techniques
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The third lesson introduces some basic colour theory – complementary / contrasting colours and how they are used in op art (often next to each other) – I am going to discuss how this makes the work seem more confusing to look at. There is a really good YouTube video (not mine!) which also shows how to use complementary colours to add shadows.

I have shared other art projects teaching colour theory here – enjoy!
Op Art KS3 lesson home learning project repeat patterns

Lesson four is the final lesson and asks students to use what they have learned so far to create a final design. I would like to spend a bit of time talking about types of pattern repeats (basic, reflection, rotation etc.) during my lessons. There is an example of a final piece which has a ‘reflection’ repeat.

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If you would like this op art home learning / lockdown project just leave a comment and I will share the presentation with your email address. Also let me know if you have any questions or ideas about the project!

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46 thoughts on “KS3 Art – Op Art Home Learning Project”

  1. This is exactly the type of work my ks3 pupils could cope with. Informative , interesting, creative and ‘do-able’. A great unit of work, well done.

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  12. Thanks for sharing this lesson (and all the others! very inspirational) – especially nowadays when we’re completely depleted ideas-wise (at least I am 🙂 ). Could you send me your outline please? Many thanks

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  13. Thanks for sharing, this looks great! We have just gone into lockdown again and this looks like the perfect balance of fun, skills building and artist research.

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  16. Hi, your website looks so very interesting and would be very useful in our home learning now. It would be amazing if you could share a lesson for us all to have fun with that. Thank you

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  17. Hi, Your site looks amazing. We are in lockdown in Auckland, New Zealand and I would really like to teach my middle school students about OP art.

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Making and teaching art. Based in Manchester.