LOVE Art for Kids – Reverse Stenciling
Welcome back to a brand new series of 31 Days of Love! For those not familiar with the series, I take January as an opportunity to highlight and show case some of my brilliant blogging and arty peers from around the web. Today we have a gorgeous Valentine’s Day Art Project for Kids – exploring the Great Artists!
Each day I invite a new Guest Blogger to share a gorgeous Valentine’s Day Craft for Kids – as well as a little bit about themselves and their blog. You can keep track over the last crafts, as well as browse the Guest Posts from the last two years via 31 Days of Love, but I also try and group them into Valentine’s Day Decorations, Valentine’s Day Cards, Valentine’s Day Treats and Valentine’s Day Gifts for you browse, depending on what you are after! Today we have the wonderful Amber from Wee Warhols with a great Love Art For Kids Project!
I would like to thank Maggy for inviting me to be part of the 31 Days of Love on Red Ted Art. I am honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the series. My name is Amber Scardino. I am a mother and a private art teacher and art blogger at Figment Imagination. At Figment we love to explore many different mediums, tinker, deconstruct, build, and explore technology. I integrate lots of science, math, and history into art lessons in fun, interactive ways. For “31 Days of Love” I’m excited to share one of the art projects that my Wee Warhols made. They tried a new medium, a new technique, and they got a little art history lesson!
Robert Indiana – great Art for Kids to explore
Wee Warhols made LOVE Valentine’s Day art for their special loved ones. We were inspired by Pop artist Robert Indiana’s LOVE print. LOVE is an iconic Pop Art image that you may have seen on a Museum of Modern Art Christmas card from 1964 or on a US postage stamp. This image was designated an emblem of 1960s idealism. Indiana used screen printing, a technique that worked well with his simplified bright forms and allowed him to produce multiples. LOVE has also been created in steel sculptures around the world, originally in Indiana, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
We used a different technique to create our LOVE art; reverse stenciling.
LOVE – Reverse Stenciling Techique
Materials Needed:
- cardboard & scissors (for stenils)
- large watercolor paper
- Colorations watercolor spray *
*create your own using old spray bottles from the kitchen or bathroom
Reverse Stenciling Techique – Art for Kids
I cut out the letters using a thick poster board, since we were going to get messy and I didn’t want the paper to tear. I showed the children Indiana’s image with the slanted O, but this did not influence them when placing their letters. The children placed the letters on large watercolor paper and sprayed them with Colorations watercolor spray. I love this washable medium, since it is kid friendly and can act as a safer version of spray paint. (Some children may need to use two hands when pressing the spray trigger, though.)
The kids pulled the letter stencils off and where the lettering had been, the white word “LOVE” remained. While we talked about Robert Indiana and Pop Art on this day, we also studied the art of graffiti and cave painting.
We worked with stencils and the reverse stencil technique, so this was a good lesson on the difference between the two techniques, as well as positive and negative space. Positive space is the area in a piece of work that acts as the subject. Negative space is the area around the subjects, or areas of interest. Reverse stenciling was a new technique for these Wee Warhols, and they had a lot of fun trying it. I hope you enjoyed learning about our Valentine’s Day project and take some ideas away that you can use in your home or classroom.
We have more fantastic Valentines Art Projects here:
