It's so hot here in Missouri!! And if you are like every other parent around here, you are probably thinking "Great! What are we going to do all cooped up tomorrow!?" This is a project that Brock and Bryce did last summer and loved. It kept them both completely intrigued for over an hour three days in a row! Yep, that's right; three days....I was amazed! Each day the boys added some painters tape and painted a new "layer" on top of the old painting which gives a very multi-dimensional effect to the final project.
This is so easy! But first you need to gather a few supplies...
Paint -I used acrylic Folk Art brand paint...any craft store will have it. Choose the location first where the finished masterpiece will hang and then coordinate the paint accordingly. I choose a wall in my kitchen where the walls are pale green. Therefore, I went mainly with green, tints and shades of green, blue-green, and yellow. A little color wheel knowledge comes in handy here...in a nutshell if colors are neighbors on the wheel they "play nice together"...opposites on the color wheel don't. Mix opposites together and your will get a pretty yucky color. So say you want orange and blue in your finished product...that's fine! I will explain later how to make that work...but to begin pick one main color and it's tints and shades ( shade's add black to the main color, tints add white). We even threw in come metallic paint just for fun and it gave a really cool effect!
Canvases -You may choose one for each child, or if you have a really big area you may opt to grid several 12 x 12 canvases together to cover more space... lots of creative options here! You can usually pick up a canvas pretty reasonably at Michael's or Hobby Lobby...they go on sale frequently.
Tape - Painter's tape or regular old masking tape will workgreat. Varying the width is always great too, but not necessary.
DAY 1 - To begin, put paint out on a paper plate. As far as colors go, I would go with your main color and tints and shades of it. So in our case I put out green that coordinated with the walls, white, dark green, yellow, and cream. For the first layer just let them go to town painting! Wherever they want...only rule: nothing we can recognize. No hearts, stars, trees, letters, etc. Just mush the colors around and experience what happens with them. Use different materials - this part they will love! Try spreading the paint with an old gift card, one of my favorite techniques.Very grungy looking. Make sure you get the edges and then let it dry overnight.
DAY 2 -For the second layer have each child place tape wherever they choose on their canvas. It's really ok for them to put it wherever they want! As far as color goes...I still stay with a similar pallet to layer one, just make 2 or three subtle changes for contrast. Now let them go! Paint away! Cover whatever...as much or as little as you want of Day 1's painting. Let canvas dry overnight.
DAY 3 -same as day 2 - or skip to day 4 :)
DAY 4 -Now it's time to add some complement colors - this would be the time to add those colors that don't "play nice together"...just put out that color and it's tints and shades...So in ours that's where you see the red...I kind of told them to try to just put this color in spots they felt were"special" so it wouldn't overpower.
DAY 5 -This is the best part...carefully pull off all that tape and see the masterpiece underneath!
You really could drag this out for as many days as you want...the more days you do it the more depth your painting will have! We actually only have 3 layers on ours and I think 2 more would have been great...but totally happy with how they turned out. More importantly, the boys were so proud and now have masterpieces in the kitchen!
I would love to hear if you give it a try! Stay cool tomorrow everyone!
Jenny
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