A rainy day off school saw us painting on our graffiti art wall which we haven't worked on for a very long time. It's a really fun, exciting and creative art project to do with the kids!
I love our graffiti wall! One which I join in with them too.
We have a dedicated wall for this. It's on one wall in our hallway. I must say it's getting a little easier as the kids get older to work on it. It was a bit tricky in the past when they were younger trying to tell them, "no we don't paint or draw on any other walls... except this one!" A concept sometimes hard to grasp for little ones. (They're going to draw on the walls anyway, right!?)
I don't like to have rules during art time, but here are some of my guidelines ;)
- It's this wall & this wall only!
- You may paint over old work if you want to. That's the whole point of the graffiti wall! But respect the new work that someone else is doing.
- For the parents: breathe, it's only paint!! You can always paint over it one day.
- Wear old clothes and an art smock. It can get messy.
This might not work so great in a carpeted area. This is an "at your own risk project"! Luckily we have vinyl wood flooring, so any spilled paint can be soaked and scrubbed away.
Hints for working on a graffiti wall:
- Use coloured pencils to make initial drawings. If you use water soluble ones, any mistakes can be wiped off worth a damp rag.
- Use cost effective student grade acrylic paints. When the kids were younger I used washable poster paint like these ones, because the paint had a tendency to spread through the house...
- Set everything up you need before starting: paints, palettes (one each), brushes, washing up water and rags.
- Make your art larger! This is quite tricky for my youngest to grasp, she still makes some little tiny drawings on the wall, but that's ok. I just let her go and do her own creative thing :)
- You need more paint squeezed out onto your palette for working in a larger area.
- Try different sized brushes to see how it works. You may find you like a bigger brush than you thought you would. Again, student quality brushes are fine for this project.
- get involved and paint with your kids too.
Some ideas to try:
- Dripping paint
- Painting words
- Your fave animal
- Patterns & shapes: dots, spots, lines, flowers, stars, leaves
- Hand prints are super fun!
- Paint an image from a photo or book
- Paint yourself
It's also a chance to teach about some colour mixing.
When we started out painting this graffiti art wall, it was during the day when my husband was at work. What a nice surprise he got when we got home! (I reminded him that he did marry an artist!)
I hope you enjoyed checking out our graffiti art wall. A super fun kids art project that is never ending. Update and repaint when the urge strikes.
Are you brave enough!?
Jules :)
I used to do this with mine. Lovely post Jules, I think more people should let their kids do this!x
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