Inside: Make Father’s Day art perfect for Father’s Day gifts, Father’s Day cards, or grandpa gifts with Pointillism.
June is the time to celebrate all the dads in our lives.
I’m lucky enough to have an incredible father, an incredible father to my children and an incredible father-in-law.
And I want my kids to show them how incredible they are.
So each June, we look for fun and meaningful ways to show them how much they mean to us.
In our family, that means breakfast in bed (we do it for birthdays and Mother’s Day too), usually a round of disc golf since it’s my hubby’s favorite, and homemade gifts.
We’ve celebrated them with this I am Poem to show them how much we love them.
This year, we’re making pointillism art, both as gifts and as Father’s Day cards to them.
What is Pointillism Art?
When I was in college and took the mandated Art History courses, I discovered and then fell in love with Pointillism.
Maybe it’s because it reminded me of those Hidden Magic Eye Puzzles from the 90s.
My professor showed us a tiny, zoomed-in piece of art and all we saw was dots.
Little tiny dots.
Then he zoomed it out to the gloriousness that is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
And once I saw the painting hanging in the Art Insitute of Chicago, I was sold.
The tiny dots that magically turn into gorgeous art is mesmerizing.
I ran across the street from the museum and bought my tiny daughter the board book, Sunday With Seurat
And when my kids were older, we graduated to these kid-friendly art history books on Seurat.
This awesome YouTube Video of Art with Mati and Dada and Seurat is a great way to further explain Pointillism to our kids.
If you have younger kids who don’t have the fine motor skills for Q-tips, get them these Dot a Dot Art Markers and they can create their own art.
Want more books to connect to this project?
Here are our favorite Father’s Day books:
Supplies Needed to Make Father’s Day Gifts with Pointillism
- cardstock paper
- OR canvas
- Q-tips
- red, blue, orange, and black acrylic paint (tempra paint is fine for the cardstock paper)
- pencil
How to Make Father’s Day Cards with Pointillism
1. On the cardstock or canvas, lightly draw the words you want:
We love you Dada/Daddy/Dad
We love you Grandpa/Gramps/Pops/Pa, etc.
For our gift to Pops who loves basketball, we turned his “o” into a basketball. But it can easily be turned into any sports ball.
2. Use the first color of choice to dot, dot, dot along the outline of the letters.
If you are using acrylic paint, let your kids know it’s “forever paint” for clothes.
And remind your kids not to smear the paint by using the Q-tip like a paintbrush.
Instead, show them how they can make tiny dots close together to make it appear like a line was formed.
3. Continue with all the letters, changing colors if you wish, being mindful of not smearing the paint.
4. You can leave the heart just an outline or you can color it in with more dots.
5. If you’re turning an “O” into a ball, fill it in completely with the color you want. Then let it fully dry before you add the details like on our basketball.
6. Once the Father’s Day gifts or Father’s Day cards are dry, you can wrap them up or add them to your gift.
Your kids can tell the fathers and grandpas in their life they love them as much as the number of dots it took to create their gift.
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