The Design Process

I wanted my students to understand the process of creating public art. I explained that with public art, not only the individual artist decided on the design, but a committee from the community or the government would have input or final say regarding the design used.

We also talked about murals - standing in front of our wall, 28 feet long and 9 feet high, I explained that whatever they drew would be enlarged. So empty space - negative space - would also be enlarged. And that negative space would be boring if there was too much of it. We discussed other elements of design, what makes a good composition, the fact that we couldn't get a great deal of detail in tile, etc.

And the design phase began.

Each student had a 12 x 18 sheet of paper, which they would use horizontally. Every student drew their idea, discussed their composition with me, and then revised as needed.

We also talked about the fact that while we had tile in the basic color wheel colors, we also had small amounts of related colors (as in yellow-orange versus pure orange). We also had lots - LOTS - of neutral colors - tons of beige, white, grey. A fair amount of brown, some black. And how could we incorporate this into our mural?

Students considered this as they drew and revised. Once they had their final design, coloring in colored pencil. Each student received a grade for their design, and final designs were collected. Then we took a break.