DIY Art Journals For newcomers to the mixed media art form, creating an art journal is a great way to grow as an artist. For a beginning mixed media artist, creating a piece of art on that “good” canvas can be downright intimidating. What if something doesn’t turn out right? What if that canvas is …
Tints, Shades, and Tones Expand your understanding of why some colors look better next to one than another. Practice creating tints, tones, and shades and then use them in an abstract painting. Learning to create tints, tones, and shades can give you greater flexibility in creating art. Understanding these color concepts will also help you …
Fun Splatter Painting with Kids Incorporate splatter painting effects in abstract art projects on paper, canvas, or fabric. Do these projects outside or indoors in a protected area. Splatter painting creates an entirely different effect than brushstrokes. Splattering diffuses or scatters paint over the paper or fabric being painted. Below are some different techniques to …
These four projects feature random shapes and bright colors. Children can do these projects as part of an art class, at home on a rainy day, or even while traveling. With a few simple art supplies, kids can create colorful art projects that rely on making random shapes with glue, pencil, markers, and scissors. Younger …
How to Make Patterns with Doodle Art Use a simple framework of lines or shapes to create small spaces that you fill with doodles. Turn those random marks you make when you’re bored into a piece of artwork. If you’ve doodled hearts, stars, ponies, or tanks on the covers of your notebook or in the …
Graph Paper Art Drawing for Kids Learn some of the elements of design – color, shape, and repetition – while coloring on graph paper. Coloring patterns on graph paper is like a free-form coloring book. You get some guidelines, but you decide what the finished design looks like. Graph Paper for Your Pattern Making Art …
Combine natural science and art in this project, which uses the shapes of fish scales as the basis of a cut paper mosaic. Scales are layers of thin, transparent, overlapping plates. The shapes can be cut from any type of paper and glued onto poster board or cardstock. With creative color combinations, along with different …
Watercolor Pencils for Kids & Beginners Watercolor pencils offer the ease of drawing with colored pencils but leave you with the final effect of a watercolor painting. Watercolor pencils are fun because you can use them in different ways to produce a variety of effects. You can go outside and draw a picture using the …
Plaster of Paris Crafts to Try with Kids Create a Plaster of Paris surface to paint on with watercolors or draw on with chalk pastels. Working with Plaster of Paris can be a bit messy, but children who are ages eight and up can explore this medium as a new drawing or painting surface. While …
Watercolor paints offer lots of opportunities to create realistic and abstract art. Paint with a dry brush, use a wet on wet technique, or try different resists. Children can use palettes with cake paints, tube paints, or even liquid watercolors. Cake paints come with their own palette; colors can be mixed on a plastic plate …
Chalk Pastels for Kids & Beginners Go beyond drawing with chalk pastels on paper, and try these different techniques combining the pastels with water, egg yolks, and milk. Chalk pastels create soft images, but the dust often smears or blows off the page. The following methods create bright-colored results that don’t resemble most projects done …
The art projects here use unusual tools to create abstract art. Use interesting color schemes so your final artwork looks bright and the colors don’t blend into brown. General Materials for Making Abstract Art Keep a bucket of water handy for washing your hands or the art materials. A hose is handy, but you don’t …
Mixed Media Art for Kids Ideas Merge collage with paint, ink with watercolors, and other combinations of art materials that spark the imagination. Break out the art supplies and encourage kids’ creativity with projects that combine two or three media, or art materials. Learning how to layer different items also develops problem-solving skills. The key …
5 Kids Collage Projects Collages can be simple pieces of art made from a few pictures glued on paper or they can be sophisticated works incorporating fabric, paper, and other materials. Collage comes from the French word, coller, which means “to glue”. Collage can involve paper, wood, foam, fabric, and any other materials that are …
Leaf Mask Art Project for Kids Create a half mask decorated with leaf prints, flower stencils, or even silk flowers and leaves. Wear the mask or use it as a wall hanging. Start with an inexpensive, purchased half mask or cut one from poster board or craft foam. Then creatively decorate it in one of …