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Drippy Pictures

Here is an interesting paint effect to make your very own piece of modern art. Be warned - this is very messy, and best done outside unless you want the modern art effect to extend to your carpet or floor covering! Children love this activity as although it is so simple to do it produces some really unusual and intricate results.

 

  

What you'll need

  1. An easel, or failing that a flat vertical surface that you can stick the paper too, like a garage door for example.
  2. Four pots of paint in different bright colours, (made up to be quite runny and liquid) and four paintbrushes.
  3. Paper - preferably black but any dark colour will do.
  4. Plenty of newspapers or plastic sheeting for covering up.
  5. Aprons or overalls for the children.

 

 


 

 

What to do

  1. First of all, cover up. Get the children to put on their aprons, and put lots of old newspapers on the floor under and around the easel or on the garage door and on the floor in front of it. It's a good idea to cover up the children's feet too as otherwise the paint will run down onto their shoes.
  2. Then peg the paper on to the easel or stick it on to the garage door. Blu-tack is ideal for this.
  3. Get the children to make four splodges of colour across the top of their paper in one colour. They will need plenty of paint on the brush and will need to press hard with their brush on the paper so that the paint drips down the paper in a vertical line.
  4. Repeat the process with the three remaining colours using a different brush for each one so that you end up with 16 splodges of colour across the top of the paper and lines of paint running down the length of the paper.
  5. Let the paint dry which should only take a few minutes if you're doing this on a nice sunny day.
  6. Rotate the paper one quarter turn or 90º sand then put it back on the easel or garage door.
  7. Repeat the process of making the splodges across the top with the lines of paint dripping down in the four different colours.
  8. You will end up with a very colourful grid effect. The lines will make a variety of shapes as they intersect.
  9. You could ask the children to identify squares, rectangles and triangles for example.
  10. Clean up! If you're doing this outside (which I sincerely hope you are) then have a bowl of soapy water around so that you can clean up straightaway. This is also useful if you've got a child who doesn't like having messy hands.
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