Optical Art Project: Caterpillar Butterfly Picture

My third-grader and his classmates are totally into optical art which they call op-art. They are also currently raising butterflies in their classroom. To combine the two, we did this butterfly op-art project. It was a little tricky as the cutting and pasting need to be pretty accurate in order for the image to come out. But we all worked together and helped each other out and they turned out great.

You will need ...

Colored Markers
Glue
Scissors
Drawing Paper, two regular sized papers and one larger paper.

Make sure the larger paper is at least the same size as the two smaller papers side by side.

NOTE: Your kids can certainly draw their own pictures, but to save some time, we started with pre-printed pictures. I also drew the lines on the paper to save time as well.

Step One

Start with two different images. Ours was an image of a caterpillar and one of a butterfly. Be sure to keep the images around the same size as each other. Once the images are drawn, make 1″ vertical lines across the entire image.

Then, color in the images. The brighter the colors, the better the op-art will turn out.

Step Two

Next, prepare to cut on the lines of the images. This was the first tricky part. It is very important that the pieces remain in order so you can glue them in the correct order. To help, we numbered the back of the image lightly in pencil.

Step Three

Once all pieces have been cut, lay them out the way you will be gluing them together. So you will take the first piece of the caterpillar image and lay it down face up. Next comes the first piece of the butterfly image. Lay that right next to piece one of the caterpillar. Then repeat the pattern alternating between the next piece of each image.

If you do not have the space for this (as those school desks can be tiny), you can stack it in a pile. Just pay close attention to this step as you won’t be able to visually see the image you are creating since they’ll be in a stack versus laid out.

Step Four

The next step is tricky as well as it needs to be pretty exact. Carefully glue down each image strip in the exact order you laid them out in. Be sure to start at the edge of the large paper so you do not run out of room. The strips need to be exactly vertical up and down, and the strips need to be side by side. Any deviance will result in difficulty folding.

Step Five

The final step is to fold the picture. Create an accordion fold by folding the picture along the first strip’s edge. Then turn the paper over and fold it in the other direction along the next strip’s edge. Repeat until the entire paper has been folded like an accordion or a paper fan.

Gently unfold the paper, but not too much. It should still have the folds and should not be flat. If you look at the paper from the right side, you should see one image. Then if you switch and view it from the left side, you should see the second image. And voila! DIY Optical Art. En-JOY!

The Mom Touch