Art Illusions

#TheCompleteSeries6lessons

Confuse and astound your budding artists with this fantastic 'Art Illusions' scheme of work for Year 5/6! Your class will find out all the tricks of the trade to discover how artists play with perspective, line and colour to create clever and mind-bending illusions, including trompe l'oeil, optical art and much more.

With detailed lesson plans, engaging slides, differentiated activity ideas, step-by-step help sheets and much more, these KS2 'Art Illusions' lessons will soon have your class creating fun artwork to fool their friends with!

#Lesson1VanishingPointArt

Vanishing Point Art lesson plan pack for KS2. Teach your class all about vanishing point perspective in art, and start to learn techniques for creating vanishing point drawings. Includes ready to teach slides and activities.

The first lesson in this series (of six) encourages your class to think about how artists create the illusion of depth and distance in their artwork. They will explore the concept of a vanishing point, horizon lines and construction lines to find out how linear perspective works and have a go at using these tools for themselves in their own artwork. There is also the opportunity to create some cool name art using vanishing points!

#Lesson2PerspectiveDrawing

Perspective Drawing KS2 Art lesson planning, arty activities and resources. Teach your class how to create realistic perspective art drawings of interiors by using linear perspective techniques.

This lesson starts by looking at the 17th century Dutch artists who started to apply the rules of perspective to create realistic interiors. Your class can then have a go at using the idea of a vanishing point to create artwork that gives the illusion you could step right into the painting and walk for miles!

#Lesson3Foreshortening

Foreshortening perspective techniques are the focus of this KS2 Art lesson plan pack. Teach children how to use foreshortening when drawing comic book art superheroes!

The comic book fans in your class will love this lesson as it demonstrates how artists use foreshortening to create the illusion that a person or object is coming straight towards you… using the example of superheroes! They can design their own superheroes and apply the rules of foreshortening to make them come to life, or have a go at creating some of their own foreshortening poses that can be captured on film.

#Lesson4TrompeLOeilandPhotorealism

Teach your KS2 class all about trompe l'oeil drawing techniques, and look at beautiful photorealism works of art. Challenge children to use shading and sketching to make photorealistic works of art.

Artists have been using trompe l'oeil (meaning 'deceive the eye') for hundreds of years to fool their viewers. This lesson looks at early examples of this, as well as the more modern illusions of hyperrealism. Can you catch them out and make them think a painting is really a photo?!

#Lesson5ImpossibleTrianglesTridentsandBlivets

Impossible triangles, tridents, blivets and other optical illusions are the focus of this MC Escher-inspired KS2 Art lesson plan pack. Includes activities and resources to help children make their own impossible artwork.

This mind-bending lesson is sure to be a big hit with your class! Your class will find out about how artists bend the rules of perspective to make impossible pictures look real, including the use of blivets, never-ending staircases and impossible triangles. They will also study Hogarth's 'The importance of knowing perspective' and have the chance to find out about the work of the M.C. Escher.

#Lesson6OpticalArtOpArt

Teach your KS2 class all about techniques used to create abstract optical art, or op art. Includes detailed slides with op art images, and differentiated arty activities where children can make their own optical art illusions.

The final lesson in this series of six 'Art Illusions' lessons explores the mind-bending world of optical art (op art). In it, you'll challenge your class to think about how simple lines, colours and geometrical patterns can create various illusions. The slides go through some eye-watering examples that are sure to get them talking! There are plenty of opportunities for your children to create their own op art pieces too.

Free Overview (Medium-Term Plan)

Download a free overview to support your teaching of this scheme of work.

Free Assessment Grid

Download a free, editable assessment grid to support your teaching of this scheme of work.

Curriculum Objectives covered

• KS2 - to create sketch books to record their observations
• KS2 - to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing with a range of materials
• KS2 - about great artists in history