by James H. Pence

On the See the Light blog this year, our goal is to provide useful and practical tips and resources for your homeschool art class.

On Tuesdays, the focus will be on practical tips and instruction. My "Joy of Art" video tip this past Tuesday was about "lines," one of the seven elements of art. On Thursdays this year, my posts will point you to free online resources that you can take advantage of in teaching art to your children. Often, the resource post will tie in with the tip given the preceding Tuesday. 

This week's online resources/Web sites will help you take your lessons on line a few steps further. I hope you find them helpful.

THREE FAMILIES OF LINES --

http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/c02/three-families-of-lines

Here's an excellent lesson on lines as they relate to art, along with some good exercises for cultivating your ability to work with lines. The author identifies three families of lines (as opposed to the five that I described). This lesson can be viewed online or downloaded as a free PDF.

TYPES OF LINE (Short video) -- 

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/watch_types_line.cfm

This one is great for younger children. It's a very short (1-2 min) animated video that shows how different types of lines combine to form a single picture.

FOUNDATIONS: LINE --

http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/foundations/foundationsline.html

This page will give you a very consise summary of line and its place in the elements of art. It also has some easy to follow practice excercises.
 

LINE GAMES -- 

http://gbeart.edublogs.org/category/elements-of-art/

The "line games" blog page is targeted at 3rd and 4th graders and gives some simple suggestions for playing with lines.
 

ART LESSONS FOR KIDS -- 

http://artlessonsforkids.me/tag/elements-of-art/

This page is definitely one of my favorites. It has some very creative art projects, some targeted at children as young as first graders. All the projects involve the creative and colorful use of line.