#POSITIVE POSITIVE NEGATIVE HOW TO#

#POSITIVE POSITIVE NEGATIVE HOW TO#

Tuttle at the Saltonstall School in Salem, MA for the great idea!įor more step-by-step instructions on how to do this lesson with your students, read on! This lesson was inspired by an art project that my 6th grade son brought home.

Some students made creative choices with overlapping as well as dividing and reassembling tiles to combine both positive and negative imagery in a single square! Careful and precise gluing as well as trimming their colored backing paper to create an even and consistent border were important craftsmanship goals. They had to use both positive and negatives, and were encouraged to “think outside the box” when making their compositions. (Most quality copiers have this feature- you might have to ask your school’s tech person how to do this!) Each student then carefully cropped their copies and created a unique arrangement with their squares. We then made photocopies of the original: some as “Positives” (regular copies,) and some as “Negatives”, where the black and white areas are reversed. We then went about drawing a square, tile-like design The subject matter was up to each individual student, but the focus was on creating a design that filled the space and had strong elements of both black and white areas.

I asked them to observe what was dark and light in the negative and helped them come to the realization that dark and light areas are reversed on the film. Students began this fun, graphic lesson by looking at old black and white film negatives.

Positive positive negative