From Geometric to Organic

This is a fun and easy project that shows how you can turn geometric shapes into organic ones.

1. You could have students draw a set of triangles, circles and squares, but I found it easier to have cardboard templates to trace. This keeps students from trying to draw the perfect shapes themselves, which can sometimes slow things down. Ask them to trace several shapes on their paper, some preferably overlapping. Important note: they need to leave some white space, they should not fill in the entire paper.
2. After the pencil shapes are drawn, they are to be colored in with a NON-permanent, waterbase marker. This is the time to use those cheap, fat store markers as you actually will be wanting the colors to bleed.
3. Pass out small cups of water and show the students how to drop several puddles on their artwork with a brush or dropper. If they pick up the paper and roll the water around a bit, it should start to make lots of colored streaks and blobs. Repeat this until almost all of the artwork is filled with wiggly colored lines. Let dry overnight.
4. Now comes the fun part, taking a thin black Sharpie and tracing all the organic shapes that were made from the running water. The students need to work slowly to trace all the wonderful edges they see, both inside and outside the colored shapes. The more time they put into the tracing, and the more detail they see, the better their artwork will look.