Art Y5 – Week 2 :Escher and tessellations

• Read this information about the artist –MC Escher

• There will be activities for you to do afterwards

Resources:

• One task says to use white card but a cereal box or other packaging would work if it’s thin.

• If you have plain paper, use that but if you don’t that’s fine too. You could use the exercise book you have been given – the squares might even work as gridlines to help you!

• Use a pencil for sketching if you have one. Otherwise use a black pen or coloured pencil.

• If you can add colour to your sketches, then do but equally you can do it monochrome (black and white) and it will look cool! Escher is famous for using black and white to be striking and eye-catching!

Anything you see in a grey box, is written by me, your teacher, so please read it.

It will have instructions, thoughts, ideas, questions or tasks for you.

Lesson 1, step 1: read the information about the artist and tessellations

What do you notice about these patterns?

Can you see geometric shapes in these patterns? Notice how they are rotated or repeated to create a big pattern.

Does this look like patterns you have seen with floor or wall tiles in your home or in other buildings?

Lesson 1, step 1: read the information about the artist and tessellations

M.C.Esher or Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in 1898 and died in 1972. He was from the Netherlands.

Escher didn’t do very well at school but he was a very talented artist.

M.C.Escher

Whilst visiting the Alhambra in Spain, he became fascinated by the mathematical designs and patterns that he saw there. He was inspired to produce his own tessellations.

Look below at some of Escher’s real-life tessellations. Can you spot where the repeat pattern is? A repeat is when part of a design can be seen to start again and again. You could draw an outline around its perimeter

(outside edge).

Lesson 1, step 2: complete this tessellations task (silver/gold)

Silver task:Use the squares in your exercise book to create these shapes accurately. Remember, for a tessellation to work, the shape has to be the same size

and exact same shape each time you draw it.

Repeat these shapes and try to put them all together to create an interesting repeating pattern.

It can either be shaded in with pencil to create a monochrome effect or you could add colour. If you’re adding colour. Colour code your shapes to

emphasise the repeating pattern. (Look at the example below.)

Gold task:Add in 2 of your own geometric shapes to make a more complicated

tessellation.

Lesson 1, step 2: more challenging tessellation task (platinum)

Platinum task:

Try to make a tessellation pattern but with clustered shapes as well as individual shapes.

Read through the instructions for gold/silver for ideas on how to add shading or colour to your design.

These are clustered shapes –

more than one joined together.

Lesson 1, step 3: finding all the equipment and resources you will need to complete this task.

Use a cereal box instead (or any

other thin card you have)

Go and find everything you will need before you start.

Read through all the instructions in the method before you start.

It will be quite fiddly and complicated but if you take your time, you will produce a fabulous piece of artwork!

You are going to make your own template to help you create your own tessellation.

Lesson 1, step 4: making your own personal template

Well done!! You’ve finished making your individual, unique template.

Now you need to get even more creative and think about your design.

You could always experiment with some ideas first!

Lesson 1, step 5: using your tessellation template to make your own, unique design