Masterpiece: a work done with extraordinary skill; especially a supreme intellectual or artistic achievement.
OR…
The art work of your young children while skipping school on a Monday afternoon.
Here is a very simple art project you can try with your little ones. Please remember that you can increase or decrease the level of difficulty depending on their age (please refer to the bottom of linked post to read the importance of modifying level of difficulty). My children range from ages 6 to 10, but I have done this particular project with children as young as 2 and a half. I will note two versions as we go along.
What you will need:
Brown, red, yellow, orange and blue paint
Water
Paint brush or sponge brush
Straw
Drawing paper or water colour paper
Brown paper bag
Scissors
Glue
Q-tips (preschooler method)
Blue construction paper (preschooler method)
Thick cardboard (optional)
Masking tape (optional)
Sponge (optional)
Start by taping down your sheet of paper on thick cardboard or working
surface. This will prevent shifting and reduce buckling of the paper.
Paint the entire surface of the paper with your blue paint. Your
paint will need to be very watery. Spread the paint with even
horizontal strokes (this method is called a ‘wash’ in art terms).
Preschooler method: Use a blue piece of construction
paper or prepare the surface for your child ahead of time.
Dip the end of the straw into the brown paint (again, the paint
has to be fairly watery in order for this to work). Block the
top of the straw with your finger to trap the paint and gently
release your finger so the paint drips onto your paper.
Use the straw as a paintbrush to guide the paint up for a straight line
(this will be the trunk). Drip more paint onto the paper and start
blowing upwards (this will form the branches of the tree) guiding the
paint wherever you want the branches to be. Blow as high as the paint will go.
Note: while waiting for the blue paint to dry, the children had practiced
on a scrap piece of paper to get the hang of it. If your little ones just
can’t wait, you can use a blow dryer to speed up the drying process.
Preschooler method: Follow the instructions as above, but instead
of using a straw to transport the paint, your child can use an eye
dropper (try not to put too much paint into the dropper)
Once the children felt they had the technique down
pat they proceeded to start on their ‘good copy’
Here is a close up of one of the trees (notice how the paint spreads and
is darker in some areas, giving the tree dimension in the form of shading)
Have your child rip open the brown paper bag
and crumple it up, giving it some texture
Preschooler method: cut open your bag and have your
child crumple up the bag (they will enjoy doing this)
With your sponge or brush, dab the red, yellow and orange
paint throughout the bag ramdomly. You want to have the
colours mix together but not to become a uniform colour
Preschooler method: have your child dab the paint with a brush
or using finger paint, let them dip their fingers in and go at it.
Alternatively, you can skip this entire method altogether and use
a Q-tip to dab little dots onto the tree to represent the leaves
Let paint dry; fold paper a couple of times and cut out several leaves
Separate the leaves, apply glue…
…and start gluing them onto your tree branches.
Continue to do this until your branches are full of
leaves. You can glue as little or as many as you like.
Once you are done, gently remove tape from the outer edges and display!
And here was our inspiration for this little project.
This particular project is great because it yields very realistic results.
The children couldn’t wait to show their art work to their Daddy!
An alternative project…
Ethan, my eldest, decided to create an underwater scene
He used brighter colours to simulate a coral reef (he is working on drawing
sea animals, which he will then cut out and paste onto the paper)
I hope you have fun trying this project with your little ones.
much love,
Lucy
I’m attending these creative parties
So gorgeous! Where you thinking of a certain preschooler and a certain momma who is FOREVER asking you for crafting ideas? You ROCK!
Beautiful! I can’t paint to save my life, but I think I might be able to handle those two techniques!
Such a cute little project Lucy! Love how you teach your kids all kind of techniques and crafty projects and help them get creative. Kudos for that! I am now following you thanks to Tuesday Tag-Along, and it would be nice if you could share the love back on my blog;)
Today we start a brand new fun campaign that promotes fellow blogers, so make sure you don’t miss it! Happy Tuesday!
Lucy- What a great idea for little kids (and big ones too). We are always looking for hands on projects for kids that -something that is not too hard and doesn’t overwhelm them. I love this…thank you so much for taking the time to show the whole process. Hugs- Diana
Very cute! And what a great project for kids to help with! Thanks for sharing!
We are so doing this for family night! Thank you for making it so versatile that even the little ones can get involved!
Those look great! I can’t wait to do this with the kids!
Such a cool idea! Those trees look awesome! Found you from the Fall Frenzy Linky Party.
Lovely & thank you for sharing it with us on FineCraftGuild at our DIY CRAFT TUTORIALS linky party. It’s a very good & useful tutorial!!
A new party opened today, and we welcome all creative tutorials to join in this time
:0) = http://www.finecraftguild.com/diy-linky-party-19/
Have a creative day!
No doubt about it: THAT”S artwork. Wonderful project. I host a craft time at my local library….around the 4th of July we did the straw trick to make fireworks. It was fun!!
You are really awesome my kids are going to love you for this! Thanks for linking up!
Heather @ memakingdo
How fun! Can adults play at this too?! 😉
I love doing crafts with children. Their imaginations are so free.
Thanks for linking to my party. I look forward to seeing what you link up each week.
Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage
http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com
Absolutely brilliant! We are a homeschooling fam on top of just loving fun things to do with the kids…so thank you! Thanks so much for linking to Style Feature Saturday! -shaunna 🙂
I LOVE kid art. This turned out so pretty. I think I need to show my son this.. cool thing to try!
Donna
This looks like a lot of fun! I love the way they turned out. Adding the paper leaves and sticks adds so much dimension to it. Love it!
I love this project, I have done this with kiddos too. Great to do on blue paper with white for a wind/rain storm too. Budding artist at your house!
Wow…. this is really very interesting project…