Elements and Principles of Design

The top picture is an example of an organic shape. An organic shape is based on natural objects such as trees, mountains, leaves, ect. I took this photograph at Northern State University. I really like this picture because it is in the winter time, and I think it is really beautiful outside. A great extension project for students would be to do a Nature Walk, and write Haiku poetry. It would be fun to see the creative ideas that the students come up with.

The bottom picture is an example of value. Value shows a range of tones from dark to light. This photograph was taken in Switzerland. The lightest tone of value in this photograph begins right at the top of the water, and gets darker as the water gets deeper. You can see a couple swans floating in the deeper water where the value is darker. I think a really fun extension project for value would be a combined one with texture. You could have the students play around with different textures as well as trying out different values. It would be challenging to have them try to get in the correct shadows and see exactly where the light is coming from, ect.

My Foot Story

This week, we created a foot describing our life. I really enjoyed this project. It was also really neat to see everybodys outcome! I liked brainstorming how I wanted to design my foot, and what aspects of my life I wanted to incorporate into it. I felt there wasn't enough room on there for everything I wanted to add! I wish I would have added more additional things to it, however. For example, maybe some stickers or some other pictures or creative things, now that I have seen more examples of the idea.

Each person's foot was unique to their own life. Depending on what you wanted to add to it, there could be several elements and principles of design used. From using basic lines and shapes to using value. It is all about creativity, and how you want things to fit together and within each other. You can make things within your life be a symbol for something else. This is why it is so neat.

Some awesome extension projects could be to use this as an ice breaker or get to know you activity or project. You could have to students interview one another, and make the partners foot. It could be really neat to see how someone else puts together important things in your life.