Painting with Stuffed Animals

A couple of weeks ago I saw the coolest photo on Pinterest of an artist creating these beautiful prints from stuffed animals. My mind starting racing at the possibilities. I could not wait to start Painting with Stuffed Animals! Such an amazing process-oriented art project. It took me a week to convince my children to hand over some old forgotten stuffed animals and create some of the most beautiful art I have ever seen.

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WHAT YOU NEED FOR PAINTING WITH STUFFED ANIMALS

old stuffed animals or buy some stuffed animals here
tempera paints- red, yellow, blue
roll of butcher paper

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

sensory exploration
color exploration
gross motor development
creativity
artistic exploration
language development
dramatic play

HOW TO MAKE A PAINTING WITH STUFFED ANIMALS

Begin by rolling out a large piece of white paper. A large roll of butcher paper is perfect for this project. Set out three paper plates with red, yellow and blue tempera paints and the stuffed animals.

Now the fun begins! Give your children the freedom to explore the materials however they want. So much learning occurs when we give children the time and space to approach art as individuals.

I loved watching my girls explore the different stuffed animals and paint. One of the discoveries was the multitude of textures that resulted from painting with the stuffed animals. I especially loved what happened when Charlotte rolled the paint covered bear over the paper. The fur left these tiny over lapping lines. Beautiful!

“Look at all the different colors Mama.” One of the reasons we focus on red, yellow and blue paint (instead of also using purple, orange and green) is to create natural opportunities to learn about color mixing. My daughters are more likely to remember red and yellow make orange if they are given the time and space to make these discoveries on their own versus simply saying to them “red and yellow make orange”.

My girls continued to work on the large piece of paper (approximately 5 feet long and 2 feet wide) for 30 minutes. I loved watching their animals tiptoe through the paint, roll around and be used a brush for large sweeping motions.

We then moved on to explore if we could make prints of the animals’ faces. Some of the animals’ faces worked better than others. I love the elephant’s face! Wouldn’t this make an amazing print on fabric?

Can you see the bear face? This was a little trickier to create.

Painting with Stuffed Animals was a fun art experience! I am in love with the colors and textures in our new large mural. A happy and whimsical image now resides on our dining room wall.