Optical Illusions in Art Class

Last week I pinned a fabulous optical illusion art idea from We Heart Art. She had completed this activity with her fifth graders, and I thought it would make a fantastic first lesson for my students. I tried it out with my oldest daughter last weekend (she's in grade 3), and when she achieved great results, I knew it would be perfect.

This is a perfect art lesson for the beginning of the year because it uses only a few materials, has simple directions, and turns out to be an impressive work of art. As we were working on it, I could hear the "cool" and "awesome" comments that we teachers love to hear. We started our lesson by examining a colour wheel and discussing complimentary colours. I had students choose two complimentary colours for this project. To get started:
1) Locate the centre of the page - draw a dot with a pencil.

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2) Still using the pencil, draw 6 straight lines through the centre.
3) Still using the pencil, draw "happy face" curved lines in alternate sections.
4) Colour in the sections with marker, alternating one coloured, one blank (these were my magenta sections). Use a pencil crayon (in the same magenta colour) to shade the edges of the blank sections.

5) Using the pencil again, draw "sad face" curved lines in the left over sections.
6) Colour in these sections with marker, alternating one coloured, one blank (these were my green sections). Use a pencil crayon (in the same green colour) to shade the edges.
7) Trace over all pencil lines (straight and curved) with a black marker.

8) Stand back and admire. :)