Dot Paintings

Last Thursday I showed my students some paintings by Seurat. We talked about how his paintings are made up of tiny little dots and that this style of painting is called "pointillism." Then, rather than go through any more of the spiel, I gave them some pencils, stamp pads and paper and let them make their own dot paintings without any extra guidance.

Obviously you don't have to do a whole "introduction to Seurat" before making these paintings, but since we're still in the middle of our Art History Month, I figured I'd bring Seurat down to their level. And yes, most people use q-tips to make more Seurat-like paintings, but to be honest I could tell my students were ready for something a little different and I wanted to give it to them.


materials:
pencils (unsharpened)
stamping pads or sponge with some watercolor paint on it
paper

get to work:
1. It's simple, provide the children with the materials above. Show them how to use the eraser end of the pencil to make a dot on the paper by sticking it on the stamping pad first. Let them explore.

One student wanted to make a tree and asked that I draw the outline for her to work within. Seeing this makes me want to erase the lines and leave only an abstract looking tree. 

I think this one looks like a constellation.