Art Lesson: Textured Houses

I love it when an art project is simple BUT also offers a lesson in art technique and/or art vocabulary. When we made these colorful house murals, we focused on TEXTURE.

This project is best done in two parts to allow for the paint to dry completely. Since we have art once a week, we PAINTED on the first week, and ASSEMBLED on the second.

To Make a Textured House Mural

You will need:

• one large piece of art paper cut into 3-4 sections
• 3-4 paint colors
• a small square of thick cardboard that has been "toothed" 
• a section of sponge
• a large paint brush or sponge brush
• a glue stick
• one piece of colored construction paper for assembly (not pictured here)
• scissors (not pictured)

Directions for Day One:

Using a large paint brush or sponge brush, generously paint an entire section of paper.

Before the paint has time to dry, use the "toothed" cardboard to scrape horizontal lines through the paint.

With a different color of paint, repeat these steps for another section of paper.  Make both horizontal AND vertical lines with the "toothed" cardboard.

Use the sponge to dab color onto a third section of paper.  This one actually looks better if two complimenting colors are dabbed on together.

Allow the sections to dry completely.

Directions for Day Two:

Cut house shapes (squares and rectangles) out of each section of paper.  Glue them onto the colored construction paper taking care to glue the bottom of each house at the bottom edge of the construction paper.  (When doing this project with young children, the COLORED construction paper helps them to see the edges of the paper better than just plain white.)

Create and glue on other houses of varying sizes.  Each house should touch the sides of the house next to it so that you can not see the construction paper between them.

After gluing on three or four houses, cut out the perimeter of the houses and discard the leftover construction paper.

If the textured papers begin to curl or does not appear to be sticking to the construction paper very well, place a few heavy books on top of the completed mural just long enough to allow the glue to completely dry.

As I have "artists" of varying ages, I'm always looking for projects that can be completed by children with different skill levels. My 4th grader (upper left corner) was able to use last week's skill, positive/negative forms to create houses using both the positive and negative parts of her cuttings while my kindergartener (upper right) mostly used cuttings of large blocks of color with very little detail. My preschooler (not shown here) was able to do all of the DAY ONE steps and was encouraged to free-style cut random shapes on DAY TWO. Although in the end, he doesn't have a completed "project" to show, he was able to learn the art skills right along with every one else and enjoy the processes of art.

And what was my LITTLEST tot doing during our art time??...

(Don't worry, they were all perfectly sealed bottles.)