Olympic Masterpieces

We have been doing a lot of watching and talking about the Olympics around here, but not a whole lot of "doing." SO--we are having our very own Olympics in this house later on this week--will let you know how it goes! Here is one of a few posts I found to DIY Olympics: http://www.education.com/activity/article/challenge-family-olympics-home/ I also decided it was time to get going on an art project.

I wanted to do something where my kids could really pay attention to the detail of the sport in action. For this project you will need:

::printouts of Olympic sports ( I just did a Google image search)
::heavy-ish white paper
::pencil, white crayon, and watercolors
::daylight

First, you need to tape the image and paper onto a window, so the child can trace the image of the athlete in pencil. They can be as detailed as they like, but not all details are necessary. In fact you can talk about "stylized art" here to show it is okay to not be exact. (Always a hard point to get across in my house)


Now, go over the tracing with white crayon--press firmly.


Next, bring out the paints. One good thing to do when using watercolors--is to try to wet the palettes first with just a dab of water and let it mix into the paint. The white crayon acts a resist for for the outline. Gives the athlete that standout look they deserve!



If painting a sky, it is fun to dab away some paint with a paper towel to create clouds. These are really fun, and the kids were glad we FINALLY did an Olympic project.