I prepare for this lesson by researching pictograms and gathering examples from various cultures. I concentrate on pictograms that represent objects we would find in a landscape: mountains, rivers, fields, clouds, or the sun, for example. I give the students a handout as a reference for them.
The students draw and color patterns of these symbols, each on a different paper. Then, they cut them out and arrange and glue them on a sheet of paper in an abstract landscape.
This project gets them thinking about visual language, abstraction, and composition. The first one below is my demo and the next is a student work.
There are a number of strong attributes we can identify in the student work. First, it is very dynamic. My sample is pretty static. The student turned symbols in a variety of orientations. Secondly, the color is well done—better than mine. This has a split-complementary relationship between the reds and greens. These particular reds and greens have a simultaneous contrast relationship, and we can look at Klee and Delauney to see that theory in their work. Yellow and blue can also sometimes function as complements, so that's another relationship. You can also think of the whole palette as primaries, though it is a cool palette, keyed to blue (every hue has blue in it, even the yellows and reds). Finally, the student uses a similar parallel line patterning in every symbol, and that creates theme and variation throughout. So there's something to talk about here with students at every level of experience.
