Everybody has made their own paint masterpiece when they were kids. Be it using crayons or watercolours, we have all tried to discover our inner Picasso. Canvas painting for kids is absolutely necessary as a learning process that organically teaches your child to express himself in any way he would want to. And by mixing that form of painting with a few other ideas and tips, you can make it a hybrid art form altogether.
15 Creative Canvas Painting Ideas for Children
Here are a few ideas that you can try with your kids.
1. A Canvas Filled with an Array of Buttons
Make use of the canvas as more of a whiteboard of sorts, where the buttons become the colour. Put together a wide variety of buttons in various colours, shapes, and sizes and let your kid stick them onto the canvas. You can make outlines using them and fill in space, or draw an outline first and then use the buttons to fill them up.
2. Soft Pompom Balls on the Hard Canvas
Pompoms are these tiny softballs that are readily available in any craft store. Unlike buttons, these are more three-dimensional that provides your child with a chance to make a lot more than usual. Try painting a scenery and using white pompoms to build clouds over the mountains. Draw a bouquet of flowers and let red coloured pompoms be the roses in it. Let the painting rise above the canvas and create a variety of designs.
3. Sticky Paper Sticking on a Canvas
If buttons and pompoms are too restrictive when it comes to shapes, go completely creative by using coloured paper bits instead. A sticky paper that has a layer of glue behind can be used. Or you could use normal paper and glue separately. Instead of cutting the paper with scissors, let your kid tear them with his fingers into any shape that he wants to. Apply some glue and stick it on the canvas to make some abstract art. Tear out a diamond and let it be a kite flying high in the sky, or simply multiple tiny blue paper bits that resemble rainfall.
4. Blotting the Paint on the Canvas
Keep those brushes aside for a moment and let’s use another tool to create a masterpiece. Blotting paper has a very interesting way of spreading its contents onto a canvas. If your kid is a little too excited, you can even use rough towels or napkins to prevent the blotting papers from tearing. Dip them in the paint and use those to paint on the canvas. The large blots of paint, combined with your stroke patterns, makes it one of the easy canvas paintings for kids to try their hand out at.
5. Modern Art Using Melted Crayons on the Canvas
This one requires some adult supervision but the result is worth it. Lay down paper under the canvas to keep the area clean. Glue some wax crayons on the top of the canvas in an arrangement of your choice. Then, use a hair dryer to blow hot air on them and watch them gradually melt. By alternating the hotness over different crayons, these can melt down to create absolutely stunning patterns.
6. Bringing Real Life onto the Canvas
Not everything has to always be paints and crayons and artefacts. You can bring the nature itself onto the canvas and create a painting out of it. Kids love to collect items so ask your child to find leaves, flowers, dead butterflies, dragonflies, etc. Once they are dried and flat, they can be glued to the canvas in a style that is reminiscent of the olden times. Add colour the painting if you feel like giving it an artistic touch.
7. Creating Doodles on the Canvas Using Threads
This one can be done using threads or ribbons of various colours. Just like pompoms, these add a new dimension to the flat canvas. By tying together the threads in different patterns, you can create flowers, butterflies, or any other style that can be glued to the canvas. Other threads can add some zest or be used to create a border, too.
8. Why Graffiti on the Wall when there’s a Canvas at Home
There is a stark difference in the way colours appear using crayons, using watercolours, and using spray paints. Get a few spray cans in a bunch of colours, along with sketch pens and crayons. Let your kid just spray paint a bunch of wishes on the canvas and then accentuate them using the colours and pens.
9. Masked Letters in a Canvas Filled with Paint
Kids are bound to go wild with this one. Use duct tape and let your kid stick it on the canvas in such a way that it spells his name. Next, use all sorts of paints and pens and fill up the entire canvas with colour and patterns. Peel out the tape and the empty spaces will spell your kid’s name.
10. Family Photo Frame on the Canvas Itself
Mixing together art and craft, this one can be extremely cute to have in the house. Use a pencil to sketch out squares on the canvas. Glue icecream sticks along the outlines of the squares and then either paint them black to hold a photo or let your child draw his sketches of mom and dad and the family in each of the squares.
11. Making the Canvas into a Learning Tool
A noticeboard is important at home just as it is in your office. Let your kid choose a bunch of coloured papers of his choice. Then paint the entire canvas in black and let it dry. Now you can keep the stack of coloured papers next to it and put them up on the board using push pins to write anything that you want to remember.
12. Abstract Modern Art with Duct Tape
With buttons and pompoms, there’s space for some minimalism to exist on the canvas, too. Using simple pieces of duct tape to create a multitude of patterns on a black canvas can allow your kid to focus on other aspects of shape and symmetry, beyond the typical colours and patterns.
13. Sticks and Stones to Paint Great Artwork
Finding small stones or a very sharp stick can act as a brush too. By using one end of the stone or stick dipped in paint, and tap it repeatedly on the canvas. This can be used to create interesting patterns or geometrical shapes or to fill sketched drawings that might have been made earlier.
14. Hands have Fingers for a Reason
Yes! Not only will your kid have a gala time in messing up the entire place, and their hands and their clothes, the paintings they make will have their personal touch, quite literally. Let them make fingerprints, palm paintings, or write their names with their very own fingers and watch them smile in delight.
15. Bubble Wrap Paint Fiesta
A sheet of bubble wrap is all it takes for this one. Take out paint in a larger tray, lay down the sheet, and then let your kid put the sheet on the canvas in all ways possible. And even if he does get bored, he can always spend time popping the bubble wrap.
Canvas painting ideas for preschoolers, kindergarten and all kids are aplenty and each of them helps unleash their creativity in an interesting way. Keeping things clean and letting them express their heart is a good way to keep them engaged as well as build new ideas in their heads.
