Bridget Riley was a pioneer in the art movement known as Op Art. Op Art uses visual tricks and precise arrangements of lines, shapes, and colors to create the illusion of movement or depth in two-dimensional images. It became popular in the 1960s and is still practiced today. The document provides examples of Riley's Op Art works such as "Arrest 1", "Pause", and "Cataract" which use techniques like concentric circles and precisely drawn lines to fool the eye. It also gives step-by-step instructions for creating two Op Art exercises - one using circles and lines radiating out from the center, and another tracing a hand and drawing overlapping lines to make the hand emerge from the page.

1. Op Art
Bridget Riley

2. What is Op Art?
Op Art, short for Optical Art, is art that is
composed to ‘fool the eye’ into thinking that
a 2 dimensional drawing appears 3
dimensional.
Line, shape and color are careful chosen and
precisely put together to make your brain
think that the painting or drawing has
movement.
It became popular in the 1960’s and is still
created by artists today.

3. Bridget Riley
“The Mother of Op-Art”
• Bridget Riley was born
in 1931 in London and
spent her childhood in
Cornwall and
Lincolnshire.
• She went to college in
London from 1949 to
1955. Her first solo
art show was in 1962.
Cornwall
Lincolnshire
London

4. Arrest 1

5. Pause

6. Cataract

7. Descending

8. Movement in Squares

9. Orient

10. Intake

11. Fall

12. step 1.
Write your name on one side - on the other
rule a rough 1cm border in lead pencil all the
way around the edge of the paper.

13. step 2.
with the lead pencil - draw concentric circles
out from the middle to the border lines. (I
explained that they did not have to start
exactly in the middle - they could start to one
side - and they didn't have to be perfect).....

14. step 3.
with a ruler and a lead pencil - draw a vertical
line through the centre circle.....

15. step 4.
add more vertical lines across the whole image
- varying the thickness. ie make some closer
together and some wider apart.....

16. step 5.
grab a black felt tip pen and start
colouring in - carefully. start in the
middle....then work your way up
and down - then outwards. (white
out/liquid paper works well to fix
up any mistakes). biggest tip - take
your time!!

17. Step 1
Lightly trace hand with a pencil.
(Take any rings off before tracing)

18. Step 2
Using a BLACK GEL pen, start at
the edge of the paper. Begin
drawing a straight line toward
your hand. When you get to
your hand draw a curved line
over your hand. Imagine that
your pen is ‘crawling over your
hand’. After ‘crawling over
your hand’ return to a straight
line until you reach the other
side of the paper.

19. Step 3
Continue drawing lines, close
together up and down from
your original line. Try to keep
the spacing between the lines
small and even. You will see
your hand start to ‘emerge’
from the paper!
Draw lines until your whole
paper is covered.

20. Examples