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!

More Bird Feeders!

We made these recycled bird feeders! Can you tell what we made them from?

We also used acrylic paint and natural materials for the roof.






First, using a Sharpie, each artist drew an opening (or two) on each side of the carton, and I cut them out with my craft knife.


Meanwhile, our artists selected items like bark or wood to glue to the top to create a cute roof. We used hot glue for that.






Then we proceeded to paint.

This artist started with the roof first. (Yes, it is okay to paint the roof.)

To thoroughly cover the carton, we learned to add a little white to the paint to make it more opaque.

The next step was to add a hanger. Then each artist received a small bag of birdseed to feed the birds. Some of them also made little bird journals so they could draw the birds that they see.