KidsArt Lessons

Trees Through the Seasons

There are over 1000 different kinds of trees in North America. How many can you name in one minute?

An apple tree in the fall, drawn by Ivan Smith-Garcia when he was 6.

Make four pictures of the same tree through the seasons. Start with a drawing of the bare branches. Then cover the branches with snow for a wintertime picture. Draw the same tree trunk and branches again, and cover them with pretty blossoms for springtime. Draw the trunk and branches with thick green leaves for summerime, and a last picture with gold and orange fall leaves.

To make your task easier, just start with the first wintertime bare branches drawing and photocopy it onto four sheets of heavy white paper.

For more unusual and creative art projects with drawing, see the book Drawing With Children in the KidsArt On-Line Catalog.

Paint a Rainbow

Take the kids outside on a misty morning, when the grass is wet and the sun is just peeking through the clouds.  You might be lucky enough to see a rainbow arching high through the sky.  They say there’s a pot of gold where the rainbow touches the ground, but no one has ever found this treasure.

But young artists can create a rainbow treasure with paints and white paper.  This is a great project for learning how to mix colors too.  Use just the red, yellow and blue paints in a watercolor set.  Show young kids how these primary colors mix together on a mixing tray or plate to make green, orange and violet.

Paint a picture with a rainbow in it, then paint the sky blue and the rainbow colors in the right order: violet at the bottom of the arch, then blue, green, yellow, orange and red at the top.  Look at photos of rainbows from books or on the Internet, and learn more about the science of rainbows at Science Kids.

Materials: red, yellow and blue watercolor paints, heavy white paper, paintbrushes, a jar of water, a plate or tray for mixing colors, a pencil and a couple paper towels.

Time: 30 minutes

KidsArt Resource: A plastic Palette has small and large wells for squeezing out watercolors that come in tubes, as well as larger areas for mixing different colors and washes of color. Handy tool for young artists!

Athletes in Action

A project excerpt from the book Great American Artists for Kids.

Action painting in the style of American artist Leroy Neiman is perfect for sports figures. Leroy Neiman is known for his brightly colored, semi-abstract action paintings. Most of Neiman’s work focuses on sports, such as, football, baseball, boxing, even chess tournaments.

In this activity, young artists work from a photograph placed beneath clear acrylic. The focus is on dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant color in the style of Neiman!  Kids begin by choosing a photo from a sports magazine. There will be a sport to please everyone! Young artists may select from gymnastics, football, horse racing, Nascar, baseball, track and field, bull riding, tennis, and much more.  Encourage kids to pick a large photo with a closeup of action.

Leroy Neiman’s artwork is colorful and dynamic.  The ideal paints for kids exploring Neiman’s style are tube acrylics…more costly than tempera, but a little goes a long way. Each young artist should have a palette: a white dish or tray with a small squeeze of several bright acrylic paint colors. Include the primary colors, red, blue and yellow, as well as white and black. If possible, add purple, green and orange. The paints mix together easily to create every color imaginable.

Tape the sports photo onto a board or washable tabletop. Then tape a sheet of clear plastic over the sports image. Mix the thick paint with a bit of water on the brush. Paint “Leroy Neiman” style directly on the plastic with strong bold brushstrokes, and colors brighter than real life. Paint the main figures in the photo, following the shapes and details visible through the plastic. Paint the background - all the spaces around and behind the main figures - with bright colors. Don’t stick to reality - use fantastic background colors like red, white and blue, or bright purple and gold!
Eventually, the painted picture will cover up the photo beneath. At this point, the painting can be carefully removed from under the plastic so it is again visible as a model for finishing the painting.  Young artists can then add final special effects in the style of Neiman are action lines — small vibrating outlines to show movement and excitement!

Materials: sports magazines, clear plastic sheets (available at an office supply store), masking tape, acrylic paints, a white dish or tray to use as a palette, small paintbrushes, rinse water.

Time: 45 minutes

KidsArt Resource: Of course, our book Great American Artists for Kids, with hands-on art projects in the style of 75 American artists from colonial era to contemporary art, written by Kim Solga and Maryann Kohl, published by Bright Ring Books.

Tropical Tempera Landscapes

Tempera is the paint of choice for teaching young artists a wide variety of painting skills.  It’s inexpensive, safe for all ages, cleans up easily with water, mixes well to create many different colors, and is fun to use.  Tempera is also called poster paint.  It comes in liquid, jelly and powdered form.  For this project, mix the paint with water to make a thick liquid.

Tropical landscapes are an excellent subject for teaching kids to fill the entire picture with paint. Children can invent a wide variety of leaf shapes, palm trees and fantastic flowers.  Share photographs of tropical plants for inspiration.  Kids can jump directly into painting, or start with with a light pencil sketch…a BIG drawing that fills the entire paper…working on pieces of white matboard if possible, or heavy white drawing paper.

Let children explore the medium. Young artists should have small containers of liquid tempera paint in primary colors (red, blue and yellow) and white.  Small jars, muffin tins or foam egg cartons ake great paint holders. Pour a small quantity of paint in different wells.  Don’t include black, as it just tends to mussy up the other colors.  Each child should also have a larger container of fresh water for rinsing brushes, a plate for mixing colors, a wide flat paintbrush (1 inch), 1 or 2 smaller paintbrushes, and a couple paper towels.

The main point of this lesson: for kids to paint the entire area of their painting.  None of the paper sould be left unpainted. Painting the background areas will be challenging. Some children may wish to paint their picture over several sessions, while others will finish quickly.

Materials: matboard pieces (ask for scraps from framing shops) or pieces of cardboard boxes (recycled corrugated cardboard will do), sturdy flat 1 inch brushes, assorted smaller paintbrushes, liquid tempera paint, containers for paint, plates for mixing colors, pencils.
Time: One or more 40 minute sessions.

KidsArt Resource: At KidsArt, we sell a set of high-quality, washable, opaque Dry Tempera Paint manufactured in the USA by Sargent Art.

Mola Art from the San Blas Islands of Panama

A traditional mola is a picture made out of cloth by the Kuna people from the San Blas Islands of Panama in Central America.  The Kuna women and girls make molas to decorate their clothes (the word mola means shirt in the Kuna language). They also sew beautiful mola artwork to sell on the world market.

A mola is made out of several layers of cloth stitched together. Holes are cut in each layer to reveal layers of colorful cloth underneath. Some molas have patches of fabric sewn into the patters.  The bottom layer is the background color and supports the stitching of all the other layers.

Kids can make a replica of a mola out of colored paper as they learn more about the Kuna people and Central America.  Begin by looking at real molas on the Internet.  Start at Google Images with a search for “San Blas mola art,” then explore links from there.  Look for web pages on the San Blas Islands of Panama, the Kuna people and their history and culture.  Find this region on a world map.

A construction paper mala. The shape of the bird is cut out of red paper and placed on top of black. Yellow and Blue shapes are glued on top to complete the design.

Simple natural or animal shapes are both traditional and satisfying for young artists. A bird, lizard, fish or turtle is a great subject, or a large tropical flower or leaf.  Sketch the shape on a piece of white paper and cut it out to make the design template.

Choose 4 sheets of construction paper…colors that go together nicely…and stack them together. Trace the template on the top sheet of colored paper.  Carefully poke through the middle of the shape and cut it out with a scissors.  It’s the outside paper that will be used in the mola, the “negative space.” Cut other shapes from different papers to finish the design.  Glue all the layers together.

MATERIALS: construction paper, scissors, glue, mola images from Internet, pencils, paint markers.

Time: 30 - 40 minutes

Internet Resource: Check out the great Mola Art Lesson using Markers and Paper on the Deep Space Sparkle blog.

KidsArt Resource: The best colored paper we’ve found is sold at the KidsArt online catalog.  Textured Color Art Paper is heavy and bright, with thick sheets, great for drawing, chalk and charcoal, and paper collage.