AI for Teaching

Teaching art and design inevitably involves helping students look and see the world and using their imagination to reflect, respond and recreate. Art rooms are usually fitted with digital projectors, and everyone understands how to use PowerPoint. On a very obvious and basic level AI generated images will help teachers explain, illustrate and illuminate ideas and options for their students. AI will also provide opportunities to create different iterations of images to support critical discourse.

 Prompt: Adopt the role of an illustrator of children’s books. Create an image illustrating a one-point perspective suitable for 12-year-old students.

Art and design teaching

Art and design teachers will use AI to generate images that are directly related to their teaching and lessons. These visual examples will help their students better understand the learning objectives and practical tasks in lessons. They will also support critical discourse and understanding as they will enable teachers to isolate and present images which directly reflect specific aspects of the subject.

Below are some potential uses of AI that might interest art and design teachers. There will be many more, and over time, these will become increasingly complex and sophisticated.

Examples and suggestions

Reimagine:
AI can recreate classical paintings in styles ranging from cubist fragmentation to digital pixel art, encouraging students to explore and question the relationships between style, meaning and context.

This can help develop skills of critical analysis and promote a deeper understanding of artistic interpretation and stylistic conventions.

Example Prompt:

“Recreate Picasso’s Guernica in the style of the impressionists/cubists/pop artists/Japanese woodblock printing”

Visualize:
AI can generate visual metaphors to represent abstract concepts, ideas and values. This can enhance conceptual thinking and stimulate research into the visual communication of complex or abstract ideas.

Example Prompt:

“Create an image representing ‘societal transformation’ using intersecting geometric shapes and a gradient of transitional colours”

Design:
AI can produce a series of design iterations that systematically modify elements like composition, colour palette, or structural balance. This can illustrate design thinking, encourage experimental approaches, and illustrate the nuanced impact of design decisions.

Example Prompt:

“Generate four variations of a minimalist chair design, progressively altering proportions and material textures”

Cultural Exchange:
AI can create nuanced visual compositions that blend artistic elements from diverse cultural traditions, revealing both distinctive and universal artistic expressions. This can promote cross-cultural understanding and encourage students to recognize both cultural specificity and shared artistic languages.

Example Prompt:

“Combine elements from West African textile patterns with Japanese ink wash painting techniques”

Form and Function:
AI can generate multiple versions of an image or design, exploring the relationship between structural design, material properties, and aesthetic intention. This can support students’ understanding of design principles and the interplay between form and function.

Example Prompt:

 

“Visualize a chair that simultaneously represents industrial efficiency and organic natural forms”

Beyond the colour wheel:
AI can produce versions of an image, each with a dramatically different colour palette. This can help teachers demonstrate how colour can affect artistic intentions, emotional responses, and compositional strategies. This can support interactive demonstrations of colour theory principles beyond the traditional colour wheel.

Example Prompt:

“On a single sheet, create four images of the same natural landscape using complementary colour schemes that progressively shift the emotional temperature”

Artistic Movements:
AI can create detailed images of different subject matter which mimick different artistic movements, revealing the distinctive visual languages of styles like Art Nouveau, Constructivism, or Digital Minimalism. This provides an opportunity to compare and contrast and to disassociate style and content. This can develop students’ understanding and use of critical analysis.

Example Prompt:

“Create an image based upon a scene from the First World War in the distinct visual language of David Hockney/Paul Cezanne“

Creative thinking:
AI can generate unexpected visual juxtapositions that challenge normal associative thinking. This reflects and illustrates what has been called combinational creativity. This can help students understand and further develop their creative thinking skills and encourage them to break traditional conceptual boundaries.

Example Prompt:

“Create an image that visually integrates a musical instrument, sea creature, and architectural element”

Example Prompt:

“Visualize a portrait that deliberately disrupts classical compositional principles of symmetry and balance”