A great art project provides families with a wonderful way to enjoy an afternoon, but you can also use art as an opportunity to teach your children about different artists and styles of art. Here are a few art projects for kids of all ages that also teach them about a famous artist, which can prove to be the most meaningful method to teach them about a new style of art.
Surrealism lends itself well to a children's project because one is not expected to create a picture of something exactly the way it appears to the human eye. Joan Miro is an excellent artist to copy for an art project because his works are colorful and whimsical which appeals to children. Start your project by looking at a few of his works, including "People and Dog in the Sun," "Daybreak" or "Nocturne." You will see that at their essence, these are simple pieces with lines and basic shapes. Consider having children begin by drawing one or two stick figures on a paper and then adding stars that are created with dots and lines, as well as circles. Have a few of the shapes intersect and then color the piece, taking care to color the intersecting portions different colors from the rest of the shapes.
Another artist that children will enjoy learning about is Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky. Several of his works can be used for a great children's art project, including "Squares with Concentric Circles," or "Color Studies." Both of these can be easily copied because they are basic shapes. Because the picture itself is easy to do, this is an excellent way to use unique art mediums, such as oil pastels, chalk or watercolor rather than crayons, colored pencils and markers. For a slightly more advanced project, consider taking a look at Kandinsky's "Composition X," and consider having children begin by drawing intersecting shapes and coloring each section individually with crayon and then finish with a black watercolor wash. Or, for a different application, draw with chalk, crayon or oil pastel on black paper.
Another artist that children will find inspirational and relatively easy to mimic is Paul Klee. Begin by showing children some of his paintings, such as "Red Balloon," "Castle and Sun," and "Senecio." The latter painting is a great project for kids. Children simply create a head by tracing a big circle and then adding straight lines for the neck, dividing the head in half with a straight line and adding touching eyes and squares for the mouth. Trace the lines with permanent marker and color in the picture very thickly using pastels. Then paint over the picture using acrylic paint. After the paint dries, you can scrape it away with an old credit card, leaving only traces of the paint.
Children also can create an amazing photo collage in the style of David Hockney. You can look through a variety of magazines and find a nature scene, a portrait or just about any image. Have the children cut the picture into rectangles and squares and then re-paste the image together on paper, taking care to overlap pieces slightly and also rotate pieces here and there. It can be fun to have children work separately on the same image and see how each picture turns out differently.
You can also purchase and download PDF art murals from websites such as ArtProjectsForKids.org. This is a great way to introduce your child to an artist or work of art that might be more difficult to imitate, such as Van Gogh or Monet. These PDFs are divided into squares with a portion of the painting drawn on each square. Children simply color each piece and then arrange them and paste them on a large piece of paper to recreate a collage of a famous painting, such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Klimt's "Tree of Life."
Surrealism lends itself well to a children's project because one is not expected to create a picture of something exactly the way it appears to the human eye. Joan Miro is an excellent artist to copy for an art project because his works are colorful and whimsical which appeals to children. Start your project by looking at a few of his works, including "People and Dog in the Sun," "Daybreak" or "Nocturne." You will see that at their essence, these are simple pieces with lines and basic shapes. Consider having children begin by drawing one or two stick figures on a paper and then adding stars that are created with dots and lines, as well as circles. Have a few of the shapes intersect and then color the piece, taking care to color the intersecting portions different colors from the rest of the shapes.
Another artist that children will enjoy learning about is Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky. Several of his works can be used for a great children's art project, including "Squares with Concentric Circles," or "Color Studies." Both of these can be easily copied because they are basic shapes. Because the picture itself is easy to do, this is an excellent way to use unique art mediums, such as oil pastels, chalk or watercolor rather than crayons, colored pencils and markers. For a slightly more advanced project, consider taking a look at Kandinsky's "Composition X," and consider having children begin by drawing intersecting shapes and coloring each section individually with crayon and then finish with a black watercolor wash. Or, for a different application, draw with chalk, crayon or oil pastel on black paper.
Another artist that children will find inspirational and relatively easy to mimic is Paul Klee. Begin by showing children some of his paintings, such as "Red Balloon," "Castle and Sun," and "Senecio." The latter painting is a great project for kids. Children simply create a head by tracing a big circle and then adding straight lines for the neck, dividing the head in half with a straight line and adding touching eyes and squares for the mouth. Trace the lines with permanent marker and color in the picture very thickly using pastels. Then paint over the picture using acrylic paint. After the paint dries, you can scrape it away with an old credit card, leaving only traces of the paint.
Children also can create an amazing photo collage in the style of David Hockney. You can look through a variety of magazines and find a nature scene, a portrait or just about any image. Have the children cut the picture into rectangles and squares and then re-paste the image together on paper, taking care to overlap pieces slightly and also rotate pieces here and there. It can be fun to have children work separately on the same image and see how each picture turns out differently.
You can also purchase and download PDF art murals from websites such as ArtProjectsForKids.org. This is a great way to introduce your child to an artist or work of art that might be more difficult to imitate, such as Van Gogh or Monet. These PDFs are divided into squares with a portion of the painting drawn on each square. Children simply color each piece and then arrange them and paste them on a large piece of paper to recreate a collage of a famous painting, such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Klimt's "Tree of Life."
About the Author:
Kate Halfey enjoys writing about art projects for kids. To get further information about awesome art projects for kids or to find flower art projects for kids, please check out the ArtProjectsForKids site now.
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