Art projects for the home studio: FOUND OBJECT PRINTS!

RECOMMENDED AGE: School Age (K-5)

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Found objects (bottle caps, pom poms, coins, feathers, leaves, buttons, corrugated cardboard piece, bubble wrap, anything that has a good texture)

• White scrap paper

• A sheet of watercolor paper

• Black acrylic paint

• Paintbrushes

• Palette

• Cup of water (for cleaning brushes)

THE STEPS:

1. Your artist will choose 5 found objects and do test prints of them on white scrap paper. To print, they’ll be painting the object with black paint and then pressing it onto the paper.

   Questions to ask for a high quality print:

   • Does your found object have a lot of texture?

   • Are you using the right amount of paint?

   • Are you using the right amount of pressure when pushing on the paper?
     
     

2. After making test prints, your artist can use these objects to make an interesting pattern on their watercolor paper, taking their time to make high quality prints. They should work to fill in a lot of their negative space using repetition.

   Questions you can ask to boost your artist's creativity during the process:

   • How many patterns can you come up with by using your found objects?

   • What are you going to do to fill up most of your negative space?

   • Can you come up with any new interesting shapes by placing certain found object prints together?
     
     

3. BONUS: If you have any coloring tools (liquid watercolor paint, colored pencils, etc.) your artist can explore mixing primary colors and adding secondary colors in the negative space of their found object print!