How to Make Name Art with Pointillism

Inside: Create dot name art to decorate your kids’ rooms with this name art with Pointillism project perfect for kids.

“But mama, I’m boooorrrreeedd.” It never fails. Come summer break or spring break or during distance learning, my kids seem to struggle with this awful thing called boredom.

Now I’m okay with my kids being bored. It’s good to be bored.

But I also love to have a few projects in my back pocket they can do when I have work to do or they need a little guidance and direction.

We’ve made these old school shrinky dink friendship keychains and these friendship flowers.

I’ve taught them how to sew using these clean meat trays.

During the summer months, we use these ideas to save our sanity and keep them from being bored.

And we use these 18 tricks to keep them busy when we’re stuck indoors.

But my kids also love painting and making art. We’ve used pointillism to create watercolor circle art, art for fall, art for winter and art for holidays and to sneak in learning about the ABCs with these alphabet dot printables.

And now we’re using their names and pointillism to create name art projects they can hang in their bedrooms. You might also like this rainbow drip painting to paint kids’ names.

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 with these dot marker activities.

And since we love fall and I love Pointillism, we connected this name art to Pointillism, made entirely out of dots.

Want more name books to connect to this project?

Here are our favorite name books:

Alma and How She Got Her Name

Chrysanthemum

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

My Book About Me

Supplies Needed for the Name Art with Pointillism Project:

small canvas or cardstock paper
Q-tips
acrylic paint (tempra paint is fine for the cardstock paper)
pencil

For younger children:

How to Make the Name Art Project with Pointillism

1. Write your child’s name on the canvas or construction paper, pressing lightly so the paint can cover the pencil marks.

Even if your child can write their name, it’s easiest if an adult writes their name so the letters are evenly spaced and large enough to cover the whole canvas or construction paper.

If your child wants to write their own name, have them practice how to space out the letters on paper first before they write on the canvas.

2. Dip a Q-tip into the paint color of their choice and one dot at a time, follow 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 to use dots to cover all the letters in their name. This takes patience, depending on how big your canvas is.

Your kids can do all one paint color or many paint colors.

4. Once it’s completely dry, your child can use it as a room decoration.

Name Art Project for Preschool Kids

If your child is younger, just learning their letters, or needs to improve their fine motor skills because holding a Q-tip is still tricky, try the Preschool version of the name art project.

1. Again, write their name as large as you can on construction paper.

2. Show them how to use the dot markers to dot dot dot on the letters of the name.

3. Say the letters in their name out loud to help them learn the names of each letter they use to “build their name.”

Related: Need more name practice? Try this adorable ice cream name building activity from A Dab of Glue Will Do.

These also make great gifts for friends and family. We’ve made these art projects for gifts Mother’s Day but you can also do anyone’s name and then gift them away.

All you have to do is dot, dot, dot your way to name art.