A Long Long Line

I was looking for a way to talk about the line, one of the basic elements of art. I searched high and low for material, and then finally I remembered where I put my laptop. And thanks to Google, I found The Longest Line project. It was the perfect way to combine all sorts of lines: straight lines, curvy lines, zig-zags, wavy lines, conga lines … really all kinds of lines.

I explained that our line was going to be one long, continuous line whose beginning connect to its end, but this was a bit too much of a challenge for my younger students. I did some up front research by testing this on my husband, who has the same maturity level as some of the younger students, but nowhere near the artistic talent, so I knew that it wouldn’t work.

I told them it could start on one side and end on the other. However, the one big stipulation was that this line could not touch itself (don’t even think about it, Mike!) like the lines created by the light cycles in Tron. Blank stares. So I had to show them a clip from Tron (an now we have a bunch of kids who want to watch the movie). Sure, the Snake game would have been more fun, but this is school – it’s not supposed to be fun!

In The Making

Finishing Up

To add a little pop, we added some shapes – any shapes they wanted: circles, initials, butterflies, hearts, stars, mobius strips, or anything else that they wanted. These shapes were allowed to cross the long line creating a space that we could then color.

More to Come

We’re not finished yet, but I’ll continue to post as the students finish their drawings.