I have had the privilege of working with Kids and teenagers for over 25 years in a variety of ways. From Drama Teams, to Camp Director, I’ve had my hands involved with kids and their parents. In the past couple of years, I have been blessed to teach Art to Homeschool groups and provide private classes to individuals. Well,… one thing leads to another, and now, as the Fine Arts Instructor, I teach “Birthday Party” Art classes at Michaels. This is a piece we did this month. The Birthday girl wanted a project that had something to do with Animal prints. And So… this is what I came up with. It was a blast!!!!! Each piece turned out so well, and so unique. I was able to accomplish this project with 13 kids in 2 hours. Hopefully this will give you some ideas as the winter months approach and you are staring at some kids of your own with bored faces because it’s too cold or snowy to go outside and play. I have included both projects here. While some of the instructions are different, the project as a whole is the same.
Artistcellar Supplies: Permanent Black Markers, “Pitt Pens“, Koi Watercolors, Dylusions Inks, Inktense Blocks, Ranger Multi-Medium Matt or Gloss, Stewart Gill Paints, Silks.
Additional Supplies: Canvas, White Tissue Paper, Glitter, Paint Brushes. Soft lead pencil, Prismacolor Gloss Fixative,
I wasn’t sure what supplies I was actually going to use, but I found that ALL of the paints & materials I had from Artistcellar Worked very well! After Finishing the kids project, I started a more, adult theme with the same products. In additional pictures you can see the different between applied acrylic paints to Watercolors and Inks. They all WORK beautifully. So, while the kids may want to use less expensive paints for color, an adult version of this project would require the use of Koi watercolors, Ranger Inks, Silks, Inktense block and my favorite… Dylusions Inks.
Step 1: I found this adorable Zebra with Wings on line and made a copy of it to be transferred to the Canvas. I also found this beautiful zebra face you can see in the background. I transferred the printer copy of zebra onto a sheet of thin white tissue paper. Note* You must be very careful not to tear or overwork the tissue paper as it will tear very, very easily. (Out of 13 kids, I only had 2 prints destroyed by a heavy hand. Not a bad average) After tracing zebra onto tissue, I set it aside. If you wanted to eliminate the application of the tissue paper, look at 2nd photo down. 
INSERT of the FINAL STEP: The Photo above is the copy paper. I turned it over after applying pencil to the back and placed it on the canvas. I then retraced the Zebra with the same pencil onto the canvas. When you lift the copy paper up, a light drawing will remain on the canvas. I am just showing you both methods. With this method, all you have to do is take your permanent marker and fill in the drawing that you’ve placed on the canvas. I applied the Tissue paper drawing of the Zebra face onto the Inked canvas and carefully laid it down with the glossy medium. The whitish tint to the tissue paper disappears and all that is left to see… is the image you drew onto the tissue paper. Let canvas dry and fill in the image with your permanent marker. I inserted the last step instruction here so you could decide which method you want to try. So… These instructions are done as a last step. Hope this makes sense.
Step 2: I set aside the prepped Tissue Paper, and began to lay down color on the canvas. Since Zebra stripes go up and down, I thought I would apply the paint colors in the same manner. So, for the kids project, I watered down some acrylics and placed a puddle at the top of my canvas. Then I simply let them all run down. Then I turned it upside down and let the paints run again. Back and forth until the canvas was mostly covered with paint. The kids liked this part. Some just painted stripes of color. A little more uniform, but that’s what makes each one unique.
As you can see, this is the Dylusions Inks. I love, love, love these colors.
This is the difference between Inks, watercolors and stains (Above) and craft paints (below)
Each renders a very nice display of colors. Inktense Blocks would give MORE VIBRANT color. This is a great project to play with and compare the gorgeous assortment of paints and colors Artistcellar has to offer. She has ALL my favorites. I’ve been working on getting a nice variety of Steward Gill Paints from Artistcellar. I can’t find them in my area. This piece would really sing…. Using those colors.
Step 3: After allowing the canvases to dry, I sprayed them with a fixative, (Prismacolor Gloss Fixative for Pastel, Charcoal & pencil). Any fixative will work. This is all I had. I sprayed them pretty good as I did not want these colors moving around when I applied the tissue and medium gel from Ranger. Please read the INSERT of the FINAL STEP to complete the project. To finish off the kids version, I applied blue tape to the canvas on the inside edges and painted it solid orange. Then I painted in an additional animal print. I carefully took off the blue tape and as you can see, it gave the edges crisp clean lines.
Just Add a little Glitter to those Wings…. And you are Done!!!
You can see that the piece is still wet and it actually tore a little on the edge, but I kinda liked it. When dry, fill in with marker
I just took the painting around to the sides, but you can see where the tissue paper ends on the edge.
The final Piece…. Both pieces are lots of fun to do.
