Viewfinder Compositions

At the beginning of a semester with an Art 1 class I like to go over basic compositional structures. One activity that can be helpful is a composition scavenger hunt. To do this activity you'll need the students to create a viewfinder and you'll need some magazines. You can find this Viewfinder Compositions activity on my TPT. 

1. Discuss any compositional structures you would like your students to know about and practice looking for/creating.  

2. Now have the students create a viewfinder. An easy way to do this is to take an index card and measure an opening that is around 1" x 1.5". Then have students cut out the window of their viewfinder. In order to more accurately find an example of the Rule of Thirds, students could also mark the approximate Thirds lines on the side of the index card they didn't make measurements on. 

3. Next have some magazines, at least one for each student. Students should be placed their viewfinder on their magazine images, isolating visual elements to just inside the opening. They should be looking for one of each of the compositional structures you covered at the beginning of the activity. 

I hope this activity sparks some ideas for you on how your students can easily and quickly practice some compositional structures! Remember you can find the activity and resources on my TPT, link at the top of the post!

How do you teach composition BEFORE students start creating drawings/paintings? Drop a line in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions!