Super Fun Optical Illusion Art Activity

Super fun and easy art activity that focuses on line and shading to create an optical illusion.

Thanks to @missgirlingsclassroom for her classroom display of this awesome craft activity!

Materials needed:

• Square piece of paper
• Lead pencil
• Permanent marker
• Ruler
• Bowl or round container

Steps:

1. Draw a circle in the middle of the page. To get the exact middle, use a ruler to draw a horizontal and vertical line to find the exact middle of your page.
2. Then, use a container to draw around the edge to get an exact circle.
3. Next, draw 6 curved lines horizontally and 6 curved lines vertically. We measured 1.5 cm from the edge of the circle. This gave it more of the rounded look.
4. Then, draw straight vertical and horizontal lines evenly in the background.
5. Once you are happy with the look, go over the lines with a permanent marker.
6. Colour the squares in a checkered sort of pattern both inside and outside the circle. We started from the middle of the circle to make sure we made no mistakes!
7. Finally, use a lead pencil to shade around one side of the circle to give the appearance of a shadow.

Your students will love creating this optical illusion activity.