Fingerpainting and Pointillism


Materials

  • paint
  • paper
  • painter’s tape
  • scissors
  • fingers!

Lesson

First, we got acquainted with Claude Monet and his famous garden. We discussed how impressionism got its name and its counter-movement pointillism.

Getting Started

Armed with painter’s tape (for easy removal) and scissors, I let the kids start building their garden. I let them add whatever suited their fancy.

Points of Paint

The biggest hurdle is teaching kids NOT to blend the paint but to put on lots and lots of points of paint with their fingertips. The goal is to have multiple colors that overlap which will begin to merge into new colors optically.

A couple areas of concern:

A few students got stuck applying just one color to an area while a few others had a tendency to avoid the tape while painting. The effect works best when different colors touch and overlap for optical blending, and remember to paint over the tape.

The Finished Gardens

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