Op Art

Bridget Riley

They are the same shade of grey!!

Bridget Riley Op Art

• Bridget Riley is a British artist referred to as the “mother” of op art• Op Art is short for optical art or artwork that creates

optical illusions (or plays tricks) on the eye• Born in 1931, Riley is still alive and working in London,

Cornwall, and France• Riley’s work is so large that she has assistants that help

her paint• She mixes all of her own paint to the exact color she

wants and doesn’t use any tape or rulers in the final product• It often takes her six to nine months to finish a painting –

that’s almost a whole year of school!!

Bridget Riley Op Art• Check out Riley’s earlier work, Arrest, from

1965• Riley uses value to make the illusion of the

waves moving• Value is light, medium and dark  within an

object or color that makes it look 3- dimensional• When painting like Riley did, she added white to

make the lightest lights, white and a little black to make the medium greys, and black to make the darkest shades

• The lights, mediums and darks contrasted next to each other is what makes it an illusion to our eyes

• We will be using pressure of our hand with pencil or crayon to make lights, mediums, and darks of colors

Bridget Riley Op Art

• Take a look at this recent piece of Riley’s• It is called Two Blues, and completed in 2003• It uses different values of blue to create

movement in the piece• Notice the mix of curved and straight lines• See how she uses a medium shade of blue

and a dark shade of blue as well as white here

Bridget Riley Op Art

• Today we are going to make our own op art piece using variations in value• First we are going to do some practice working with our

pencil to shade• Using the paper in front of you, we are going to shade the

first set of four boxes• We are going to shade one box as dark as we can and

then the next box we will shade medium, and the next box will be light, with the last box without anything in it at all• For darker values, press harder, for lighter values, use

less pressure on your pencil (careful not to be too hard and break it!)

Bridget Riley Op Art

• Now let’s try some shading with a crayon• Pick a crayon that is a darker color like blue, green, purple,

brown, or red• Using the next set of four boxes, we are going to shade one box

as dark as we can and then the next box we will shade medium, and the next box will be light, with the last box without anything in it at all• To shade lighter, put less pressure on your crayon, to shade

darker, put more pressure on your crayon – be careful though – don’t break it! • If you finish that, try shading one box, but instead of

coloring the whole box with one shade, try to change from dark to light within the box like this…

Bridget Riley Op Art

Okay – now we are going to experiment with shading the same picture two different ways…• In the left box, we are going to shade the shapes in dark,

medium, and light with our pencil – following the letters D, M, and L for what value to shade• In the right box, we are going to shade the shapes in dark,

medium, and light with our crayon – following the letters D, M, and L for what value to shade• What did you notice about the two final products? • Do they play tricks on your eyes?Congratulations, you just created some Op Art!

Bridget Riley Op Art

Okay! Time for the really fun part!• Choose a background color for your final project (the art team will be

around to hand those out)• Pick your color of crayon for your picture – choose a darker like red,

brown, blue, green - make sure to choose a different color crayon than your color paper or it won't show up• Now watch as I demonstrate how we are going to turn some fun

scribbles into Op Art!• We start by placing our crayon anywhere on the paper• Now I am going to create curvy and straight lines, crossing over each

other and moving around the entire page – without lifting my crayon up - for about ten seconds as I wrap my line back to where I started from• Look at what I have created!

Bridget Riley Op Art

• Now I am going to use value by shading in the shapes I have created using dark, medium, light, and empty shapes• I am going to try hard not to put a dark shape next to another

dark shape or a medium next to a medium so that my shapes will stand out on their own• I will also try shading from dark to light within a couple of shapes

for fun!• Okay – now it’s your turn…place your crayon on your paper and

draw those curvy and straight lines until I tell you to head back to the start• Reach all sides of your paper, cross over other lines and finish

back where you started• Now get busy shading in those shapes!

Bridget Riley Op Art

Let’s review what we learned today:• Op Art is short for Optical Art• Optical Art plays tricks on your

eyes• Value is light, medium and

dark  within an object or color that makes it look 3- dimensional

Bridget Riley Op Art

Discussion Questions:• What is value?• What is Op Art?• What is the artists name we studied

today?• Did you like this method of creating art?• What would you call your piece?• Here’s Riley talking about her work and

movement…click here for the video