Activities for kids - Paint like Georges Seurat: Pointillism

For kids Create like famous artists

Rate this tutorial

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) applied colour to his canvases using a series of small dots. Thus the name of his technique: pointillism. If you stand right up in front of one of his canvases, you'll only see a cluster of coloured dots. But as you move back from the painting, these dots will begin to blend together to form coherent ranges of colours. This technique may seem difficult but is the very essence of easy!

Materials:

1 sheet of Canson^® "C" à grain paper
Your markers
1 pencil

The technique

Use the entire surface of your sheet of paper to make a large and easy drawing (like this bird). Leave out any unnecessary details. Your pencil lines should be as light and fine as possible: they will merge into your colours.
Begin to apply the dots with the lightest colours. Refrain from overlapping them.

Now apply the darkest colours. Feel free to use 2 colours which do not seem very compatible (such as the green and blue here on the back of the toucan): stepping, back, you'll quickly see that they merge to form a third colour that matches the yellow. You can also "mix" 3 colours on the same surface, such as for the hat.
Apply a few red dots here and there on the back of the toucan. This will help to highlight it ever so slightly.
Step back from your sheet frequently to monitor the progress of your work: by doing so, you'll avoid unpleasant surprises!

A tip

It's better to begin your learning process with markers than with paint, for markers are a lot less messy (paint drips!). If you absolutely insist on using paint, apply it with cotton swabs: you'll need 1 to 2 boxes to paint a sheet of A4 paper!