Lesson video

Hello, everybody.

How are you feeling today? I hope you're feeling great.

My name is Ms. Afzal, and I'm going to be your art teacher today.

That makes me feel really great.

As well, I'm feeling pretty good and fantastic because of our lesson today, which is called "Investigating patterns in art." I love art obviously, and I love patterns.

I love looking for patterns all around me.

Patterns are everywhere.

And I love looking for patterns in nature.

Guess what? That's what we're going to be doing in our lesson today.

We're investigating patterns.

Our lesson comes from the unit Perfect patterns: Drawing and design, and I hope you're feeling ready for our lesson.

I hope you've got focus, enthusiasm.

I hope you've got your pattern-seeking eyes ready to look out for those patterns all around you.

And I think if you have all that, we are ready for our investigations into patterns to begin.

The outcome for our lesson today is: I can explore different patterns in art and discuss how they are used for decoration.

Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

I hope you feel that way too.

Let's find out more about our lesson.

Our lesson has some keywords in it.

Let's go through them.

My turn, your turn.

Pattern.

Line.

Great to hear those words loud and clear.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Pattern is a design in which lines, shapes, forms, or colours are repeated.

Line is a mark made by a moving point, such as a pencil or brush.

These are our keywords.

Let's go through them one more time just to be sure that we know what they are.

Are you ready? My turn.

Pattern.

Line.

Fantastic.

Let's look out for them.

Let's listen out for these keywords.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today.

Our lesson is called "Investigating patterns and decoration in art." It has two learning cycles.

First of all, artists who use patterns and next, patterns inspired by nature.

Oh wow.

I love patterns.

I love nature.

This is going to be such a great combination, but let's begin first of all by finding out who are these artists who use patterns.

Take a look at this image on the screen.

Can you see these amazing patterns? Take a good look at the image and tell the person next to you, what's your favourite part of any of the patterns that you can see on these models on the screen.

Thanks for sharing.

I really love the very bold yellow and black pattern that's at the bottom of some of these dresses.

It's so eye-catching.

Now my next question for you is, where did you last see a pattern? Pause the video and tell someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder what you came up with.

The last time I saw a pattern was on the stripey socks that I was wearing.

Patterns can be found all around us.

They are everywhere.

They're in nature, they're in fashion, they're in architecture, and in everyday objects.

Pause the video and tell someone nearby an example of where you have seen a pattern either in nature, in fashion, in architecture, or in an everyday object.

Pause the video and tell someone.

Thanks for sharing.

I really enjoyed seeing a pattern in a flower that had recently bloomed and opened up.

The pattern on the petals was so beautiful.

Artists and designers use patterns for inspiration in their work.

Let's find out about who some of these artists and designers are.

Becky Allen is an artist who creates patterns by repeating marks over and over.

Her drawings are careful and detailed, showing movement and time through lines and shapes.

Bridget Riley is an artist known for creating optical illusion art.

She uses repeating shapes, lines, and colours to make patterns that seem to move or change when you look at them.

I went to an exhibition of Bridget Riley's work once, and it was such an amazing experience because I couldn't believe I was standing still as I was looking at her artwork.

It felt like either I was moving or the artwork was moving.

But actually we were both still.

She'd created some incredible optical illusions through her use of lines, shapes, colours, and patterns.

Her artwork plays tricks on the eyes, making it look like the shapes are vibrating, waving, or shifting.

It's really amazing.

If you ever have the chance to see some Bridget Riley work, I would encourage it.

Check for understanding.

How do Becky Allen and Bridget Riley both use patterns in their art? They both create realistic drawings of nature.

They both use repeating marks and shapes.

They both paint portraits of people.

Pause the video while you select one of these answers.

Well done if you selected answer B.

Indeed, Becky Allen and Bridget Riley both use repeating marks and shapes to create patterns in their art.

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist famous for using bold, repeating patterns in her artwork.

She often covers entire surfaces, walls, floors, objects, and even rooms with dots.

She takes simple shapes, like dots or net-like patterns, and repeats them over and over to fill spaces.

This makes her work instantly recognisable.

The other thing about Yayoi Kusama's work is that it's so much fun.

I've seen some of her work in a gallery and it really makes me smile.

It's quite awe inspiring because she really takes over the whole space, but also it's a lot of fun.

Anila Quayyum Agha uses patterns in her artwork to tell stories about culture and identity.

She creates intricate cutout patterns inspired by traditional designs, like those in Islamic art.

In her artwork "Intersections" in 2014, she shines light through a pattern on a wooden cube, creating beautiful shapes on the walls and floor.

The patterns are repeated and symmetrical, and they change as you move around them.

Check for understanding.

What type of pattern is Yayoi Kusama most famous for? Is it A, stripes; B, polka dots; or C, zigzags? Pause the video while you share with someone nearby.

Well done if you selected polka dots.

Oh yes, Yayoi Kusama covers objects and even floors and walls with polka dots.

Izzy and Alex now think about how they can take inspiration from the artists for their own designs.

Alex says, "I liked Kusama's use of dots, so decided to repeat these in my drawing of an apple." That's great, Alex.

And I love the way your dots are all over the apple, the leaf, and even the stalk of the apple.

And now Izzy's also thinking about how she can take inspiration from artists for her designs.

And she says, "I liked Becky Allen's use of repeated lines, so I used that as inspiration to make my own design." I love that.

And I love your design, Izzy, all of those repeated lines with the little dots in between as well.

Remember, you can take inspiration without copying to create your own unique pattern.

And now it's time for your first task.

I would like you to choose an artist who uses patterns in their work.

This could be Becky Allen, Bridget Riley, Yayoi Kusama, or William Morris.

Research their art and answer the following questions.

Who is the artist? When and where were they born? What type of patterns do they use? Are they repeating, natural, geometric, or optical illusions? What materials and colours do they use? How does their artwork make you feel? And then sketch a small section of one of their patterns.

After you've completed this, I'd like you to move on to the next part of your task, which is creating your own pattern inspired by the artist's style.

So there's quite a lot involved here.

First of all, you're going to answer the questions.

You'll sketch a section of one of their patterns, and then create your own pattern inspired by their style.

I hope you enjoy this task.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, it's great to be back with you.

How did you get on? So with the questions about the artist, first of all, who is the artist? Maybe you selected Yayoi Kusama and said that Yayoi Kusama is from Japan and was born in 1929.

What types of patterns do they use? She uses repeating patterns, especially dots.

What materials and colours do they use? She uses paint, sculptures, and installations with bright colours like red, yellow, and blue, often covering surfaces with polka dots.

How does their artwork make you feel? Her artwork makes me feel curious because the patterns seem to go on endlessly.

And then maybe you sketched a small sample of one of your artist's patterns.

And for the next part of your task, you may have taken inspiration from an artist that is inspired by nature and created your own pattern based on that.

Hope you enjoyed this task.

And now we're on to the next part of our lesson, patterns inspired by nature.

Patterns and nature, a fantastic combination.

Let's get into it.

Hmm.

Take a look at these patterns on the screen.

What's the difference? Pause the video and tell someone nearby.

Well done if you noticed that the pattern on the left involves symmetry.

Symmetry can be found in patterns.

It means that one side looks the same as the other, like a mirror image.

So it's as if one side of the pattern is looking in the mirror and seeing its reflection on the other side.

Many patterns do follow symmetrical or repeating structures.

Take a look at this ladybird.

Can you see the spots on the ladybird's wings? They are forming a symmetrical pattern.

The same on either side.

Although some patterns do follow symmetrical or repeating structures, patterns can also be organic, irregular, and asymmetrical.

That means they are not symmetrical, like the pattern we can see on this phone case.

Oh my goodness, I think I need a new phone case.

One with a pattern like that would be really nice.

Repetition is an important part of patterns.

So we have one spiral and now we're repeating it and we're repeating it again.

And that's helping us to create a pattern.

Repetition helps make patterns look interesting and connected.

Hmm.

There's Alex thinking again.

He's thinking about how he can improve his design.

Pause the video and share with someone nearby, how do you think Alex could improve this design of his? I wonder what ideas you came up with.

Maybe something like this.

Alex says, "I could make the swirls, lines, and dots the same on both sides to add symmetry." Look at that.

So it's like we're looking into that line in the middle.

It could almost be like a mirror.

And on either side, we've got exactly the same design.

So we've got a squiggle first of all.

Then we've got some dots, and then we've got a line.

And then we've got a line with a circle at the top and a line down the middle, line of symmetry.

Remember, when adding symmetry to your design, it might not be perfect.

It's fine if something's a tiny bit different to something else.

We're not going to get it absolutely perfect.

Izzy improves her design by adding repetition.

So she's got a little line, couple of dots, and then a bigger circle.

And she says, "I repeated the circles and dashes to make the pattern more interesting." Let's have a look.

Aha.

Okay, more dots.

Another circle.

More dots and circles.

More dots and circles.

And then the dash at the end.

I love that, Izzy.

Really great use of repetition of those circles and dashes.

You can organise shapes in many different ways.

So we've got some spirals repeated on a diagonal there.

We've got some forming a circular or pentagon shape.

In a line, horizontal line of spirals.

Oh wow.

Take a look at this.

We could also do something like this.

Overlapping and organising swirls can create patterns that show movement and flow.

Pause the video and share with someone nearby, what do these series of swirls on the right make you think of? Thanks for sharing your ideas.

These swirls make me think of waves, the movement of water.

Adding colours and mixing shapes creates interest and variety.

You could have a combination of dots, lines, and other shapes, and then you can mix colours using a gradient.

And Izzy says, "As the artist, I get to choose what elements I add to my design." Hurrah.

That is the most exciting thing about being an artist, choosing, making your decisions about what goes into your design.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Overlapping and organising swirls can create patterns that show movement and flow, just like patterns in nature.

Pause the video and decide if this is true or false, and then say a little more about your answer as well.

Pause the video while you do this.

Well done if you answered true.

Indeed, overlapping and organising swirls really do help show movement and flow, just like we see in nature with things like shells or waves.

Thanks for sharing your answer.

Artists can use a variety of lines to create patterns.

Straight lines.

Let's have a go at few of those together in the air.

Dots, show me some dots.

Zigzags, those are fun.

Wavy lines.

Can you show me some wavy lines? Feels quite nice and relaxing that one.

And organic lines.

Just any kind of lines.

Show me some of those.

Lovely.

Finally, swirls.

Show me some swirls.

I love you joining in with creating these variety of lines, which we can use to create patterns.

Now let's have a go at an activity.

So first of all, I'm going to have a go.

I'm going to create a repeating pattern.

So on a small piece of paper, I'm going to choose a simple shape, dot, star, swirl, or another small design.

And I'm going to fill my paper by repeating the shape to create a pattern and experiment by changing the size, colour, or spacing of the shapes.

So there's my pattern of dashes and circles and dots.

And now it's your turn to create a repeating pattern.

On a small piece of paper, choose a simple shape, dot, star, swirls, or another small design.

Fill your paper by repeating the shape to create a pattern and experiment by changing the size, colour, or spacing of your shapes.

Pause the video while you have a go at this.

Well done for having a go.

And you may have tried adjusting the size, colour, or spacing to make your pattern even more interesting, just like Kusama's work.

And now I'm going to scatter shapes across my page without a set order.

Some big, some small, some overlapping.

And I'm going to experiment with size, spacing, and layering as I throw out my spirals and swirls.

Now it's your turn.

I'd like you to create a random pattern by placing shapes or textures freely.

And remember, you can experiment with the size, spacing, and even layering of your shapes.

Pause the video while you do this.

Oh, these are looking great.

The swirls and the dots.

You may have tried scattering shapes freely, creating a natural or a flowing pattern.

And now it's time for your task, pattern experimentation.

Using your choice of a mark-making media, recreate or invent your own patterns inspired by nature.

You could use repeated dots, swirls, zigzags, organic lines.

Try to fill a whole page using repetition and symmetry where possible.

So pause the video here and go for it.

Let yourself go free and fill the whole of your space.

Imagine being like Yayoi Kusama and letting your creativity run free as you fill your page with dots, swirls, zigzags, or lines.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Great to be back with you.

You may have drawn a pattern based on your chosen natural object or item, experimented with the size of the pattern, added extra details like dots, swirls, or zigzags.

Well done for creating your pattern inspired by nature.

In our lesson, "Investigating patterns and decoration in art," we've covered the following.

Patterns and decoration are used in art and design across different cultures.

Artists and designers create patterns using repetition, symmetry, and different shapes.

You've done a fantastic job today, everyone, exploring different artists and designers who use patterns and then taking inspiration from them and creating your own patterns using repetition, symmetry, colour, shapes.

It's been a whirlwind of a lesson and I hope you've enjoyed it.

I'll see you at another art lesson soon.

Stay creative until then.