Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Negative Art

I found this very cool art piece from Dilly-Dali Art. They sprayed their hands with white paint onto black paper and it looked awesome! So I tried that with my kids today. Although I loved the look of having a bunch of hands on one big sheet of paper, I also wanted each of them to have their own to take home. So I put white paint in a spray bottle and added a little water. Then the kids took turns spraying each other's hands on black paper.

When they took their hands away, they loved what was left behind (not to mention how cool their splattered arms and hands looked!).


I put them up really close together so it looked like one big art piece.
My only disappointment with this is that I think I added too much water. Or maybe construction paper absorbs too much. I just wish the white was whiter, you know? But it still looks cool!


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So cool!

TerlauGroup said...

no it looks like snow. the amount of paint is perfect. it would be cool to decorate windows with snow spray over little hands for christmas decor

Betsy said...

That is a cool idea, TerlauGroup!

Unknown said...

I love it just the way it is! I hope to do this with my class! Thanks for sharing!

DramaQueen said...

Glitter makes everything better!! A lil white glitter added to paint! Just a thought!

Unknown said...

I had difficulty getting mine to turn out like this, I couldn't see their hands real well and the paint was sliding around.

Betsy said...

I'm sorry you had trouble, Jennifer. It's been a few years since I've done this but I remember thinking it wasn't turning out right at first, but when it dried it looked much better. You have to make sure enough paint is applied to get a nice outline of the hands. Spray it from every angle. Paint should fall between each finger. I'm not sure what you mean when you say the paint was sliding around. Was it dripping? Were the children's hands moving? My only guess would be you added too much water, but I really don't know. You could try experimenting with different amounts of paint vs water, even using just a sponge or block instead of hands until you find the amount that works. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

Unknown said...

Love this idea! Thanks for the post. We incorporated this idea into our hands-on STEM experiments about light and shadows. It's a great illustration of how shadows form, if you tell the kids to pretend that the paint spraying on their hands is the sunlight shining on them. See our other activities at https://inventorsoftomorrow.com/2017/01/09/light-and-shadow-experiments-for-kids/