Join Essence in a Storytime of Peter Reynolds’s The Dot. In this story, a girl named Vashti discovers her inner artist by simply using paint and a dot to express herself. Get your kids involved in this simple and fun art form with two dot-art activities below. One activity is better for your younger kids and the other is better for kids that are older.
Make a Negative Space Dot (ages 4-6)
“Vashti even made a dot by NOT painting a dot.”
Materials: paper plate, scissors, your choice of paints, water, paintbrushes, and paper
Directions:
- Cut a circle out of the paper plate. You can use the outline of the flat part of the plate to make a perfect circle!
- Place the cut-out circle in the middle of your sheet of paper. This will create the negative space needed to make your work of art.
- Use a larger paintbrush with your paint to paint the background of your artwork. Hold your circle down onto the paper firmly with one hand and paint using your other hand for this project!
- Once your background is painted, use your other paintbrushes to create designs over the background. Use different colors to create textures and patterns. You can paint over the dot if you need to!
- Once you’re happy with your creation, peel the dot off the paper to reveal the negative space dot. Repeat and experiment to discover your inner artist!
“Vashti splashed her colors with a bigger brush on bigger paper to make bigger dots.”
Materials: Same as above!
Directions:
- Cut a circle out of the paper plate. You can use the outline of the flat part of the plate to make a perfect circle!
- Add 7-12 small dots of your paint to your circle. You can experiment with color combinations and the placement of the dots as you repeat the art project.
- Use your paintbrush to spread the paint to cover one side of the entire dot. You can mix colors if you like! Make sure there is enough paint on the edges of the dot as well.
- Carefully place your dot with the painted side down onto a blank sheet of paper. Use to fingers to rub gently on one side of the dot to make sure all of the paint makes contact with the paper.
- Peel the dot to reveal your very own painted dot! Repeat and experiment to discover your inner artist. You can try cutting the dots into different sizes or layering your dots, one on top of another!
Team GCM Creators: Essence