Q-tip Pointillism

My friend Cheryl sent me this link to an activity on The Artful Parent recently and I knew immediately that I wanted to give it a try!  Apart from being very cute, art history related and using supplies we have in the house, I knew that it could accommodate a 5 years boy and a toddler, of paramount importance round here!

The results were really fun and both boys were utterly absorbed.  I expected the novelty to wear off after about 10 minutes but all in all our painting session lasted about an hour.  They loved the ‘restriction’ of the Q tips and it was fascinating to watch the creativity that came out of using such a simple tool.

Before we went to the table I showed Huwyl some pointillism paintings online and  talked to him about how the pictures were made up of dots of colour, then we began our own project.  Although we like to do watercolour painting a fair bit I used Tempra paint, which worked perfectly for the q-tips.  I gave lots of options as well as making new and exciting colours (red-brown, blue-brown, yellow-brown, brown-brown…).

I was surprised by how much versatility the simple q-tip offered and much fun the boys had exploring all the possibilities.

The boys explored not just colour, line and composition but also texture.  I was pleasantly surprised by how little help from me they required.  The simple palette of colours and tools seemed to create a reassuring limit.  It was great to see Huwyl creating such variety but also watching Neirin was a revelation.  His concentration and focus were no less than Huwyl’s.  This intensity surprised me as did his ease and familiarity with the painting process.  This little person is turning into a real painting pro!

Um, when did he get so big exactly?  It looks like I have two artists in the house; this could get messy…