Center of interest designs.

Children are born designers. "It's easier than drawing," is often heard from a child who is happily creating with shape, line, color or texture.

And for some, it is. Some children, by third or fourth grade, seem to find that their drawing skills are below par. But when asked to make a design, the same students become successful and happy with their work.

The key is success. And successful designing begins with organization in the child's mind. One way to present designing in a concrete manner is to introduce the concept of a center of interest, or focal point.

Define the center of interest to the students as the place on the design, picture, painting or photograph that the eye is attracted to first, or the most interesting part of the picture. To illustrate this, select some art prints that have a very obvious center of interest. (Some examples are: Wyeth's Christina's World, George Bellows' Stag at Sharkey's, Claude Monet's Effet du Matin, or Winslow Homer's Boys in a Pasture.)

If you do not have art prints available, find photographs from magazines to display. Then prompt the students to find the center of interest in each one. Ask them about what they see first. As they point out the orange sun rising in a predominantly blue-green painting, as in Monet's Effet du Matin, ask why it is the center of interest. The student may say "Because it's a different color from the rest of the painting," or "It's the brightest color."

After seeing very obvious references to the focal point in paintings, the students are now ready to scrutinize some nonobjective designs, or those designs that use only shape, line or color. (These can be successful efforts of other students, samples you have done yourself or prints.)

Make a list on the chalkboard of ways to create a center of interest:

Make the focal point the smallest object in the picture.

Make the focal point the brightest object.

Make the focal point the biggest shape.

Make the focal point the darkest value.

Give the focal point a different texture.

Have other shapes point to the focal point.

Make the focal point a different shape from the rest.

Make the focal point the most decorative element.

As soon as the students see and understand how to make nonobjective designs that have a center of interest, encourage them to make their own. This can be done with any medium: paper collage, paint, yarn, markers on graph paper. But, initially, cut paper collage seems to work the best as the shapes can be moved around and readjusted before gluing.

When all designs are completed, give the students time to show others what they have done. Have the class point out the center of interest in each other's work.

All in all, the introduction of this fundamental element of art provides rich art experiences for the beginning art student. (I begin this activity at the third grade level and continue it, in degrees of difficulty, for all ages of students.)

This activity provides the student with an opportunity to examine and discuss great works of art in an intelligent manner. It gives the students an opportunity to use an art concept in a successful way, by creating their own art. And it allows the students to critique, in a positive way, the artistic endeavors and achievements of their peers.

Kathleen Schonauer teaches elementary art in Bridgeview, Illinois.