Art Education for the Home School

Art is an important, but often overlooked, subject when it comes to educating today's children. Through art, children learn a different way to perceive the world around them, a new way to express themselves, and cultural lessons. However, teaching meaningful art lessons in the home schooling environment can be difficult. This article is the second in a series entitled Art Education for the Home School. This series is designed to give the home schooling parent the lessons and resources necessary to build an effective home school art education curriculum. Previously, the art elements and line were discussed. That lesson is available by clicking here. This lesson will continue with the elements of shape and form.

To review, the elements of art are the pieces, or building blocks, that make up every artwork in existence. A good analogy is the elements of art are like words in a sentence. Depending on which words you choose and what order you put them in, you can create many different sentences with many different meanings. So is the case with the elements. Depending on which elements you chose and how you put them together, you can create endless different artworks with endless different meanings. The elements of art are line, shape, form, texture, color, value and space. All art education should begin with this foundation. Below are two lessons on the elements of shape and form. In subsequent articles, I will cover the remaining art elements two at a time with lessons that teach and visually reinforce each term.

SHAPE

Definition -- an element of art, a two dimensional (or flat) defined area. Shapes can be divided into two sub-groups
Geometric -- regular, mathematical shapes such as triangles, squares, rectangles, circles, etc.
Organic -- irregular, naturally occurring shapes such as blobs, puddles, leaf shapes, the human outline