Art Project #85: African Savannah Silhouette Paintings

On Friday we went to see Born in China; the new Disneynature film and we all enjoyed it so much.  At one point during the movie we see a bunch of animals moving around on the screen at sunset with orange and yellow skies behind these black silhouettes... Evan leaned over and told me we should try making paintings like that..

Obviously I was going to honor that request!



We decided to pick African animals to go with our African study and it was just the perfect addition to our 100 days of Art Challenge.

We started by deciding where the ground would meet the sky and then filling in colors for our sunset.  We made sure to blend our colors together and then paint our ground black.








We let them dry.

To add the animals we decided that instead of trying to draw them and possibly ruining the whole painting that we would print off templates and use carbon paper to trace them onto our canvases.



Once traced the boys used black paint and paint brushes to color in the animals.







They look amazing!

Other Projects in this series:
Project 1: Painting with Hexbugs
Project 2: Tissue paper flowers
Project 3: Star Wars Crafts
Project 4: Watercolor compass circles
Project 5: Floral pens
Project 6: Watercolor outlines
Project 7: Scratch art jellyfish
Project 13: Water gun art
Project 14: Watercolor Kits
Project 15: Dragonfly Silhouettes 
Project 16: Painting pet rocks 
Project 17: Spray Paint Resist
Project 18: Water bottle windsock
Project 20: Tin can windsock 
Project 21: Firework glue art
Project 22: Qixel art kit
Project 26: Spray Painted Canvas
Project 28: Tin Foil Art
Project 29: Oil Pastel Bubbles 
Project 32: Drip Painted Pots
Project 33: Sun Art 
Project 36: Art Museum field trip. 
Project 39: Painting Pikachu 
Project 40: How to Draw Books
Project 42: Splatter Paint Canvas
Project 46: Tissue Paper Leaf Art
Project 50: Drawing Cat Faces 
Project 51: Making Homemade cards
Project 53: 3-D printing 
Project 54: Gingerbread Train
Project 57: Candy trees 
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Comments

  1. Nadine BestApril 27, 2017 at 10:55 AM

    What a gorgeous art project! My parents are South African and I have always had a love of all things Africa! Going to give this one a try with my older kiddo! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3April 27, 2017 at 4:10 PM

      Oh good; I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

      Delete
  2. The Lazy GastronomeApril 30, 2017 at 1:53 PM

    At first I thought this was a travel post - but then I read it! I love the way you presented the idea and the easy instructions! Thanks for sharing on the Pleasures of the NW's DIY party!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3April 30, 2017 at 3:43 PM

      Well,thank you! I try to keep the instructions easy and our lessons light and fun.

      Delete
  3. Angelic ScalliwagsMay 1, 2017 at 3:25 PM

    These are seriously good! You are all so talented!

    ReplyDelete
  4. S MarieMay 2, 2017 at 8:52 AM

    Tracing paper!! That is genius! What a fantastic kids art idea. Thanks for the awesome tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3May 2, 2017 at 3:48 PM

      I'd like to take credit for thinking of the tracing paper but it was only when my middle son took an art course and made an incredible bird painting that his art teacher told me about that trick. She said often in upper elementary and middle school kids stop trying to draw and paint because their skills have yet to catch up with their eyes and what might have been a good attempt in 2nd grade is no longer considered good enough in the eyes of the child. She suggested tracing paper and told me it wasn't cheating since it gave them great practice and allowed them to keep on doing art. I thought that was genius and such a wonderful way to look at it.

      Delete
  5. Kym ThorpeMay 25, 2017 at 10:37 PM

    those are gorgeous! My daughter did a similar project several years ago, but hers was a Western scene. Love this so much. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3May 26, 2017 at 6:43 AM

      Thanks. I just loved how they came out; we ended up hanging them together in the playroom.

      Delete
  6. My PinterventuresApril 28, 2018 at 1:51 PM

    This is a cool idea. The paintings turned out really nice and love the tracing paper idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3April 28, 2018 at 5:18 PM

      Thank you! One of my son's art teachers pointed out to us that tracing and graphite paper are just art tools and really don't take away from the art at all; especially for young kids/ boys who otherwise would choose not to do art.

      Delete

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