Autumn Art Ideas for Kids

Autumn has come to be one of our favorite times of the year for  colorful art-making at the Art Center. The changing seasons and the amazing colors of fall are always so inspiring for our young artists! We've decided to share some of our favorite autumn-themed art projects for you to try at home, starting with your littlest artists.

Lacing Leaves.  This is a fine muscle skill building activity that you can construct for your child. So great for toddlers and young children; I remember playing with lacing cards as a 6-year-old. Alternate uses might include a giant fall necklace (invented by my grandson) or flying partially laced leaves around like a kite! Create Lacing Leaves with simple supplies found around the house or craft room. Here are the printable (pdf) instructions for Lacing Leaves, which also includes four large leaf templates.

Tissue Twig Trees. Instead of drawing or painting an autumn tree, why not make one? This is a 3-D art project just for little artists! You'll need a packet of brightly colored tissue (a must for the art room), school glue, cheap paint brushes, and a hike, for the purpose of collecting interesting twigs to be turned into little trees. Here are your printable (pdf) instructions for this project.  

Colorful Patterned Leaves. This is a mixed media watercolor resist painting that K-3rd graders really love!  You'll need oil pastels or crayons, a set of watercolors (or liquid watercolors), watercolor paper, and a black Sharpie. 

We've done this project nearly every fall and I have posted the results and how-to's several times. Click here or here to see more about creating these amazing autumn leaves. 

Birch Tree Painted Collage.  This two-step painted collage is one of our absolute favorites! Easy enough for kinders, this project is great for kids up to 8 or 9 years old. Created in three steps using watercolors or cake tempera paints. 

You can find the complete instructions on our weblog link above or here or at Deep Space Sparkle.

Beautiful Sunflowers. This is a large sunflower tempera painting that includes plenty of interesting textures, patterns... and a bug!

You'll need a piece of 12" x 18" white sulfite paper or drawing paper, liquid or cake tempera paint, round medium paint brushes, water, and a picture or two of sunflowers. Click on the link above for step-by-step instructions. A great elementary school-age project!

Dogs in Scarves. This sweet pooch is romping in the leaves on a windy autumn day! This is a super cute painting for kids 8 and up (although we've had artists as young as 5 paint a Dog in a Scarf). 

You will need photo (portrait) of your favorite dog or type of dog. We have a resource file (mostly calendar pics) of dogs to look through. Collect your own and search online as well. You'll need a 9" x 12" watercolor paper, liquid tempera paint, a pencil, and a 5" plastic lid. You'll also need construction or colored copy paper and a glue stick for the falling leaves.  Click on the link above for detailed instructions. 

Owl in a Tree. This 3D construction mixed media art project is for 1st through 4th grade or so. I just love it, and had planned it as a fall 2020 art lesson at the Art Center. Best laid plans, right?

No worries! If your child loves owls, he or she can do this one at home. Artists will create the owl first in a favorite medium (such as our oil pastel owl) and cut it out. Then they'll create a 3D tree hallow with construction paper for their owl to live in. They'll need scissors, glue, and colored tissue paper (optional). I have included a link to a step-by-step video that shows how to do it.

Next up: Our favorite autumn-themed art ideas for BIG kids, ages 10 and up.

Thanksgiving Art Ideas for Kids

Here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving-themed art projects -- for you to do at home!

This adorable Pop-Up Turkey Card is fun to make and requires only a few materials. We made these for Thanksgiving a couple years ago and the kids had so much fun! For ages 7 or 8 and up, even adults. (I had a blast making mine!) You can use them as a pop-up card, or you could embellish them a bit more to make beautiful 3D centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table. 

You'll need construction paper, printed paper (like scrapbook paper, for the napkin), aluminum foil, oil pastels (best for blending, but crayons will work), paint (optional, any kind), scissors, and glue. There is also an optional turkey shape template, which is available in the lesson, or you can make up your own turkey body shape.

Here are your Pop-Up Turkey step-by-step instructions plus the turkey template. 

This Colorful Turkey can be created by kinders through 2^nd grade or so.  First your child will draw the turkey, then paint it to create a 'resist' painting. After it dries, they (or an adult) can cut it out, glue it to construction paper, and add some leaves... beautiful! You’ll need a 12" x 18" piece of white sulphite (drawing) paper (or a smaller size works too), oil pastels (or crayons if you press hard), watercolors, craft feathers, glue, and a small plastic container lid (about 3” in diameter)

Here are your complete Turkey Drawing and Painting instructions, including an easy guided drawing lesson, a video, and a printable handout from Deep Space Sparkle. 

This fun Food Collage inspires gratitude and appreciation. It's an easy, open-ended Thanksgiving themed art activity for little ones, ages 3 to 5 or so. You’ll need: a paper plate (or a ‘plate’ cut-out), pictures of food from grocery store ads or magazines, markers or crayons, children’s scissors, and a glue stick. We've also included a printable First Thanksgiving coloring page – for ‘research’ purposes. 😉

1. Search. Look through your grocery ads and/or magazines for pictures of favorite foods. Help your child cut them out and glue them to the plate. It helps to tear out the page or cut around the picture so that the child isn’t dealing with an entire magazine or a giant newspaper page to cut out a desired image. Parents or older siblings could cut out pictures for toddlers.

2. Decorate the plate. Optional of course. Is this a special meal? Serve it on a special plate! Your child can design and decorate the plate with patterns or flowers or anything else!

3. Add the food. Glue the food onto the plate. Fill it up! Make sure the markers or crayons are within reach as well. Preschoolers often want to draw food on the plate too, especially if they couldn’t find all of their favorite foods to cut and paste.

Here's a printable (pdf) version of Foods I Am Thankful For step-by-step instructions.

Next up: Our favorite autumn-themed art project ideas for kids.

The Home Art Studio

Young artists-in residence have certain needs. 

Artists need a space to work. This could be a corner of a bedroom or the kitchen table. 

Maybe you are lucky enough to have a dedicated art space, art room, or home art studio. The art space should include a roomy table and comfy chairs. 

A standing or table easel, or a pony easel, would also be a great addition.  Running water and a washable, uncarpeted floor help make cleanup a breeze.

Artists need plenty of storage space for art supplies, such as bins, shelves, drawers, and cubbies. If everything is kept in its place, materials will be easy to access and put away. 

Artists need art supplies. Most young artists have a few basic art supplies at home. These might include a pan of watercolors, Crayola-type markers, crayons, colored pencils, graphite (drawing) pencils, glue, scissors, and copy paper. Everyone also has recycled materials such as egg cartons, cardboard tubes, corrugated cardboard, old newspapers and/or magazines, fabric scraps, and yarn/lace/ribbon scraps. All of these items make great art supplies and a starting point for assembling a home art studio. My advice is to collect art supplies from around the house and begin by using what you have!

To progress further in their creative endeavors, your young artist(s) will need additional art supplies, such as those found on our printable Art Supply List for Young Artists. These items can be ordered online, and many can be found at local retailers such as Walmart, Michael’s, and Hobby Lobby.

And, yes. Art supplies can be pricey. However, there are ways around that. Young artists love to receive art supplies as gifts when Christmas and birthdays come around. Another option is the dollar store. You'd be surprised at the variety of art materials and supplies you can find for a dollar! Another option might be to make your own art supplies.  This is especially fun, because the process of making the art media can be just as satisfying as using it to make art! Check out the links below to learn how to make a few of your own art supplies.

Paint media:

Tempera paint. Make these nice thick paints for beginners. Best recipe I have found. 

Egg tempera paint. This paint was wildly popular amongst Early Renaissance artists.

Puffy paint. You need few common kitchen ingredients and a microwave oven. We made
this paint at the Art Center for some messy crazy fun and it was a real hit! 

Shiny paint. Sweetened condensed milk is the secret! Perfect for any age, including (and especially) toddlers! 

Liquid watercolors.  Uses dried up Crayola markers, so don't throw them away!

Sculpting media:

Play dough. A favorite with young artists, especially when they can make their own.  

Self-hardening clay. For young artists who are ready for a more permanent sculpting material, this is an air dry, self-hardening modeling clay similar to Model Magic. It dries and hardens at room temperature, then it's ready to be painted.

Drawing media:

Molded crayons. Custom shaped crayons made from small bits of used or excess crayons. 

Sidewalk chalk. For young outdoor artists. Plaster of Paris, tempera paint plus a few easy-to-find supplies from home. The molds are cardboard tubes, so these sticks of chalk are quite chunky. You can probably find (or make) smaller molds if you like. 

Sticky stuff:

School glue. The ingredients are all commonly found at home.  Add glitter and/or make your own glitter glue!

Papier mache'. A big favorite among young artists for making large 3-D sculptures! For more advanced papier mache' artists, try these papier mache' recipes. 

Paper: 

Art paper. Make your own beautiful art papers by recycling paper that gets thrown out. No special equipment required. 

Paper beads. Make their own colorful beads from recycled magazines, wrapping paper, etc. 

Happy ART-making... from our art studio to yours!

Halloween Art Ideas!

Halloween is a 'spooktacular' ART-making time of year! 

At the Art Center, we focus on spooky art projects throughout the entire month of October, so this year we are sharing a few of our favorites for you to make at home!

Halloween Block Heads. These are made from wood scraps! We used 2 x 4 wood scraps with other scraps, like triangles scraps for cat ears and witch's hats. Also craft wood shapes work well for witch's warts and such. Glue together each character, paint (use acrylic craft paint), and glue on embellishments like googly eyes and pipe cleaners. See more ideas here.

Black Cats... lots of them! A great recycling project made from saved up cardboard rolls. Simply cut them to different lengths and paint them black! Then press the tops down a bit to form ears. Glue on googly eyes and draw on the whiskers, nose, and mouth (metallic Sharpies work great!). Glue on a collar and add a cute little pipe cleaner tail. 

Black Cat in oil pastel. You'll need a set of oil pastels, a pencil, and a piece of black construction paper for this one. You'll first want to carefully observe a black cat or pictures of black cats.  Notice the silver and grey colors that define the shape of the cat and the texture of its fur. Select a photo you like, and draw it lightly with pencil, then fill it in with mostly grey colors! Only the darkest areas will be black! Lastly, add details like the pink in the ears, the yellow or green eyes, the claws, and the whiskers.

Folk Art Black Cat. This is one of our favorite "cat art" projects! Folk art is art that is created by untrained adult artists. First, you'll draw the cat step-by-step, then trace it with crayon or oil pastel (press hard!), adding patterns and a border. Then paint over everything with watercolor: your drawing will show through the paint!

Halloween Spider in a Web. First, you will tape a piece of watercolor or very heavy paper to a board or the table to keep it flat (use masking tape). Then cover the paper with yellow and red acrylic craft paint and let it dry. Draw the web right over the dry paint with white oil pastel. Then construct your spider with whatever spider-making materials you have handy. We used black fun foam and pipe cleaners. You can use good old black construction paper to create your spider as well, like this.

Wacky Witch's Legs. Aren't these witch's legs a kick??? This is a mixed media project that we have done with 6-year-olds and up (including adults!) First you'll paint a stripey background. Then you'll cut out her skinny legs, her matching witch shoes, and the bottom portion of her dress. The fun part is adding all sorts of embellishments: stripes, buttons, ribbons, sequins, lace, glitter, or whatever you you can find! Here are the step-by-step directions. 

This one is a lot of fun!!!

Owl in the Night Sky. This is an easy mixed media project for young artists. You'll need heavy black construction paper or card stock, white and black tempera paint, a white pencil, and an assortment of blue oil pastels. You will also make a round moon template from a piece of cardboard and you will need a sponge to paint it with, as well as a paint brush for the tree and owl. Here is the full lesson on a printable handout  (scroll down when you get there!) as well as an awesome step-by-step video. 

Spooky Charcoal Jack O' Lantern.  This is a great Halloween project for older kids who are learning to tint and shade with charcoal. All you need are a piece of charcoal, a charcoal pencil, a soft white eraser, and a soft paper towel. You will work on white drawing paper or white construction paper. We have already posted the instructions for this one on our weblog right here.

Owl in Oil Pastels. This is one of our very favorite art projects! All you need is a piece of black construction paper and a set of oil pastels. Some artists also lay in the shapes with a pencil, and some don't. Learn how to create these awesome Hooty Owls in Oil Pastel by checking out our earlier weblog post. Also try We Love Owls! and our home schoolers' Owl Art.

Cosmic Halloween watercolor painting. This is simply a wet-on-wet watercolor painting, using spooky-night colors with a splattering of white tempera. Once it dries, a solid black mixture of watercolor is used to create an eerie silhouette right over it. See how we did it in our previous post about cosmic Halloween watercolors. 

Spooky Forest Jack. Another big favorite; we do this one every year! It's 11" or 11" square, mounted on a piece of black poster board or mat board one inch larger. You can see several more samples of these on our previous Spooky Forest Jack post. You can also download (and print) a step-by-step handout with full instructions to create this spooky little painting. 

Picasso Monsters. We LOVED this project! Learn about Pablo Picasso and make an awesome Halloween-inspired monster too!

You'll need colored construction paper, scissors, markers, and glue. Also you'll need to look at some of Picasso's abstract portraits. Take a look at our previously published weblog post to learn how to complete your own 'monstrous' art, at If Picasso Made Monsters.

Halloween Inchies. These "inchies" are very tiny works of Halloween-themed art. Only 3 or 4 inches square, each piece of art is different from the next. You can use collage, pastels, watercolor, or whatever you want for each piece. Use your imagination! They can then be arranged into a square collage using 4 inchies or 9 inchies or even 16 inchies! See some of these collages and directions for making them on our previous post, Halloween Mini-Art Collages. Hint: You can make Fall or Christmas or Valentine or any other themed inchies too!

Next up: some of our favorite Thanksgiving Art Projects you can do at home!

Circle Weaving!

Weaving is a traditional skill that we have practiced before with a traditional square loom. 


This time, why not change things up and use a triangular loom? 





Why not make our loom from twigs? Or weave in the shape of a circle? 

Why not add feathers? And maybe some pinecones? 

Why not?

Seashells on the Seashore

Imagine walking along the beach, listening to the waves as the lapping water cools your toes. 



You look down -- and what do you see? 

These are small canvas paintings designed to inspire an imaginary walk along the beach. Do you hear the seagulls, smell the salty ocean, and feel the sand between your toes? 

We painted the smooth green and blue and turquoise ocean colors first.

We added the sand on the other end of the canvas, using our own mixtures of yellow ocher, tan, brown, and white. We used a stiff one-inch brush to dab on the sandy texture.

Then, along where the water and seashore meet, we added our frothy white waves.

We even added glitter paint for extra color and shine!

We chose our seashell models from my collection. Artists could paint them directly onto the sandy beach, or separately on prepped canvas material, to be cut out and attached to the seashore. 

This is my sample painting with seashells painted directly on the sand.

I also painted another seashell on a bit of prepared canvas fabric 

and cut it out to display with the painting.

Our artists selected their own favorite seashells, plus a sand dollar (collected by yours truly in California) to take home and display with their completed seashore paintings.

More Outdoor Still Life!

These still life tempera paintings were inspired by impressionist Berthe Morisot. 

Most of our young artists had painted a spring bouquet in her style in a previous class, so they were excited to try again. This time they would be painting a still life creation of their own.
 
We first assembled a simple still life, combining man-made and natural elements, and set it on our table to observe.

Then we selected a piece of colored sulphite paper, and taped it down to the table (it was a very windy day).


We started by using black tempera paint (no pencil) and a small round brush to outline the basic shapes of our still life on our paper. We then painted in our still life objects while  wiping excess paint colors in the background for color repetition and excitement. (We rinsed our brushes only to avoid muddiness or remove black paint.) 

 


We then added small details, such as notches in a birch stick or decorations on a vase. 

The last step was to re-outline the still life elements and table top line once again, as needed.

This painting was created by our youngest artist, age 6.

Still Life Art - Outdoors!

When we think of painting out of doors, we don't often consider still life painting. 

Maybe we should! 

In an outdoor setting, an artist can easily find interesting subject matter for a still life painting. 


Our goal was to create a mixed media still life painting using pencil, India ink, watercolor, and soft pastels. 


Our first step was to gather our still life elements. I supplied a few "man- made" items, such as a fruit basket, glass vases, and a jar. Each artist selected one or two of these, one or more pieces of fruit, and one or more natural objects from our outdoor environment. 

They then created their still life arrangement and sketched the basic shapes in pencil on taped watercolor paper.



The next step was something new! We quickly moistened the paper with clear water using large watercolor mop brushes, then we dipped the sharp end of a wooden skewer into our India ink and traced over our pencil lines. Oh no! Some of the lines began to bleed - for a (surprisingly) nice effect...



We continued with the ink, allowing the drawing to draw itself, so to speak.

Since we were outside, the paper dried quickly, so sometimes we had to add more water. 

Next, we opened our watercolors and painted our still life drawings. We could paint them using actual colors or make up new ones. 

 

We simplified the table surface and the background using any chosen colors.

After the painting was dry, we added a few white and brightly colored soft pastels to highlight just a few areas of our paintings. Not too much!

Then we removed our dry paintings from the painting boards.

The kids really enjoyed applying the India ink with skewers. Those who had time wanted to try this technique again. They used India ink to draw their own personal art subjects, and added color as desired. 

Our thanks to KinderArt for this great lesson idea!