Finger Painting Art Lesson

Both my kids and the kids in the art class have been asking for to do some finger painting. After giving it some thought, this is what we did.  When I did some research on finger painting I learned quite a few amazing things.  Finger painting has been used throughout history, many artists have used their fingers to apply paint to their canvas.  The woman that is responsible for bringing finger painting to United States is Ruth Faison Shaw.   Once I started reading about her, I became fascinated by all of her accomplishments, and reasons, a subject I would like to explore further later.  You can read more about her HERE and HERE.  Ruth also believed that finger painting can be very useful in art therapy. While I don’t know much about it, I have to say that finger painting is very relaxing and meditative.

When I looked for current artists that finger painted, Iris Scott was prominent, and for all the right reasons.  Her art is breathtakingly beautiful.  I showed some of her paintings to the kids before we got started for inspiration.  You can see her art on her website HERE.

I figured I would have to come up with a full on fun finger painting art lesson.  The kids had to do a full composition first and paint it, after they were done, they could just play with the paint on paper as they felt like.  We started out by drawing a composition with a pencil first.  Then we traced it over with a permanent marker.  One of the kids drew an amazing still life with a bowl of fruit.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day, so here is one that I drew:

Finger Painting Art Lesson

Then we used finger paints to finger painted it. I also brought a bag of different things to try painting with that weren’t brushes, so that they could play around with texture. I had some Nerf bullets, which make great circles, erasers, cut up sponges and more. I had gotten Palmer finger paints in AC Moore, but I am sure any other kind will do great.

The colors available were limited, so it was a great time to talk about mixing colors. The kids had to figure out how to use green, red, yellow, blue, black and white to get different skin tones, and dark purple for space, and blonde for hair, orange brown for cat fur. They really enjoyed mixing the colors.

Here is a photo of my son doing some awesomely fun finger painting:

Finger Painting Art Lesson

Once the painting felt finished and done, the kids went on to play with finger paints and make some squishy paintings for a few minutes.

Finger Painting Art Lesson

Truly, finger painting is fun, and not just for kids.