Spring Animal Patterns
Instructor: Lia Ferro
Spring has finally arrived! In celebration of this new season we want to share an art project that you can create using materials you may already have at home. This project is full of colorful patterns with shapes inspired by animals you might see out and about in the warmer weather! This is a great, meditation project that our Education Coordinator, Lia Ferro, has taught to art students of all ages! Below are the instructions and a link to download all of the templates you will need for this project, have fun and please share your colorful creations with us!
What you will need:
• A piece of paper
• Colored pencils, markers, crayons, or pens. Feel free to use whatever you have at home for this project!
1. To start, you can print out the animal outline of your choice OR you can use one of Lia’s favorite tricks. Bring up the image on your computer and use it as a light box to trace the animal outline on to a piece of paper. Increase the brightness on your computer and hold a piece of paper up to the screen (regular computer paper works really well for this). Use a pencil to lightly trace the image that you can see shining through the paper. It helps to have another set of hands to keep the piece of paper from shifting while you are tracing the image.
2. Once you have picked your animal shape, start thinking about patterns. What is a pattern? It is simply something that repeats. Take a look around your house, you might see a few patterns. You can take a look at this example sheet, but there are many more that we did not include. Think about your clothing, you may see patterns with stripes, polka dots, stars and many other shapes. Think outside of the box!
3. When you have picked your first pattern, start to draw those shapes along the edge of your animal shape. Continue along the outline of your animal until you get back to the beginning of your first pattern. Now it’s time to pick a new pattern, draw this one around the first pattern you created. Continue adding new patterns until you reach the edge of the paper. Your shapes can be small or large, depending on how many different patterns you want to include. You can make this piece super colorful, work with a few colors to create a more unified look, or use one color to create a monochromatic design. Creating the repeating patterns in the project can be very calming and meditative for art students of all ages!
4. Share your art with us! We want to see all of your colorful spring animals! Tag us @arlingtonartscenter with the hashtag #aacartonline
