A Whole Lotta Dots (a.k.a. Up with Pointillism)

A fun art activity . . . that's the whole point!

ADDED August 07, 2009

kids activities

Length: Thirty minutes to an hour.

Parental Involvement: Explain "dots-only." Let the kids have at it.

Kids Should Be Able to: Use markers or crayons.

This is such a great idea – if you'll excuse a brief moment of self-congratulations -- that we're surprised we haven't suggested it before.

Thank you again for bearing with our tooting of our own horns. And now, down to business:

If your kids are anything like mine, they draw and color practically every day. My kids just love their markers and crayons! They also love it when I give them a specific activity to do with their art stuff. And they even like when I give them some "rules."

Today's rule is: dots only! No other type of drawing will be permitted.

What kind of art can your child produce while doing just dots? Well, quite a bit, actually. (Check out the work of Seurat, the acclaimed French master of "dots-only" art.

You can challenge your older kids by asking them to produce "complicated" images using just dots. Also, you can "commission" specific works of art. Can your child use some dots to whip up an image of a moose? A sunset? How about a self-portrait? I think I'd like my kids to draw a picture of a group of people giving me delicious, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

If your kids excel at pointillism, how will they fare with something I like to call short-line-illism? (That is, drawings using only many little lines.)

Please let us know how your dots-only efforts go!

(Thanks to SanFranAnnie for the image above!)