Pointillist Marker Art

MommyO brings you any day art with everyday materials!

Create like Georges-Pierre Seurat in A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

Before you start the artsy craft — have you seen the blog and vlog yet?

Create 'Pointillist Marker Art' for hands-on fun with Neo-Impressionism!

• • •

The following fun, hands-on artsy craft will have you connecting the dots like a Pointillist.

•

It would be quite challenging to create an entire landscape — an outside drawing — like George-Pierre Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Perhaps you could start with something you would see in the out-of-doors — like a fish, a bird, a flower, or a tree.

MATERIALS

• 8-1/2” x 11” White Cardstock

• Marker Art Template

(see Blog ‘n’ Craft Blueprints

in the Seurat section)

• Colored Markers

• No. 2 Pencil

Everything you need to create 'Pointillist Marker Art!'

DIRECTIONS

*Age Option: A printable pencil sketch — Marker Art Template ­— for this activity can be downloaded from our website in the Seurat section of Blog ‘n’ Craft Blueprints and printed out onto white cardstock. Younger children may have an easier time filling their drawing with dots using a broader tip marker, while older children may prefer the details they are able to attain using a finer tip marker. Using bingo dab markers and plain white paper is the perfect way for toddlers to enjoy the Pointillist Marker Art activity alongside older siblings.

If you choose to create your own drawing: using the No. 2 pencil, sketch the design for your Pointillism marker art very lightly onto the piece of cardstock.

Starting with the lightest shades from your palette, simply touch the cardstock with the tip of the markers to make small dots of color. The dots don’t need to be perfectly shaped or spaced, just make lots of dots — filling the spaces between the pencil lines on your drawing.

•

It’s important to start with the lightest shades in your palette because it’s always possible to cover lighter marker with darker shades. However, the opposite does not hold true. Fill in all the areas with the lightest shades.

Now to create color blends, add medium shades of colored dots to all areas previously filled with the lightest shades. For example, add peach to yellow — as was done on the fish’s body. Or turquoise blue to the light blue — as was done to the water bubbles

To create some shading, add the darkest shades of the color to very specific spots. Notice that bright orange was added to specific areas of the fish’s face and scales. Dark blue was added to the bottom of the bubbles. Red was added to the fish’s fins.

Keep adding dots upon dots upon dots, until you are satisfied with your color blending results. Then add specific details to your art — for instance the eye on the fish.

Once you’ve completed your artwork, hang it on your refrigerator door. And try this — as you did with A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, look at your marker art up close. Then, take a few steps away from the work of art and observe it again. As with Seurat’s Pointillism masterpiece, you should see oodles of tiny dots when you are close. But when far away, you’ll notice that your eye magically and harmoniously blends the tiny marker dots to form a rainbow of different colors in your artwork.

•

Now you can say with the utmost confidence, “I can connect the dots, just like Georges-Pierre Seurat, the famous Neo-Impressionist painter!” Not to mention you’ll have lovely Pointillist Marker Art to proudly display.

If you enjoyed your mini-adventure in fine art with MommyO, please be sure to check out www.artadventurebox.com. There you'll find more amazing art adventures for budding artists of all ages — 5 to 105!