Art When You're Un-Artistic

I'm not the craftiest girl in the world, by any stretch.  And I'm even less artistic than crafty.  So when it comes to doing fun art projects at home with Jackson I've been less than stellar.  Thankfully, art is a very big part of their day at school so Jack gets plenty of experience with paint, glue, crayons, markers, chalk, glitter, stickers, tape, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, scissors and the like.  Just not at home so much.

With the arrival of Fall things have cooled down considerably in Kansas.  Playing outside during all waking hours isn't a viable option anymore so we've been forced to come up with some fun indoor activities over the past couple of weeks.

On a whim, I decided to grab a couple of small canvases from Michael's and let Jack go to town creating his own masterpiece.  More specifically, a pumpkin masterpiece as Halloween was approaching.

I forgot to take step by step pictures, but the process was simple enough.  I grabbed some painters tape and covered both canvases entirely.  Then I used a cookie cutter to trace a pumpkin on each.  With an exacto-knife I scored the tape around the pumpkin.  On one canvas I removed the tape leaving the pumpkin exposed.  On the other canvas I removed the tape around the pumpkin.  You can see it in the picture below.

Then I covered the table with newspapers, covered Jack with a smock, squeezed out some paint and let him go to town!

 

 

 It was right about here that I saw the error in my plan.

  Jack was just mixing up all of the colors on the canvas. 

And Red + Yellow + Blue + Green...

  Equals Purplish-Black. 

Next time, I'll have him use one color at a time and let each layer dry before moving on to the next.

We still had fun and the final product wasn't a total bust.  Then again, art never is.

We'll definitely try this project again.  I can already picture Christmas trees, snowflakes and reindeer during Christmastime.  Or even his name, initials or a favorite quote.  The possibilities are endless!