Q-Tip Pointillism Painting

Submitted by: Crystal Friddle, Day Care Teacher at
Rockingham Community College Daycare in Wentworth, NC.
Grades: Age Two through Toddlers

Materials:

Q-tips, Styrofoam Trays or pie pans, any color of Tempera Paint, Drawing Paper (any type)

Procedure:

First pour an adequate amount of paint into the trays or pans whichever you prefer then have the children dip the Q-tip into the paint. Have them paint with it just as they would with a paint brush onto the paper. In the photo below, the student is using the stippling effect to create a pointillism-like painting. The tree trunk was created using strokes with the Q-Tip.

Alternate:

You can cover pointillism with the children by showing work by Georges Seurat. Have students play with the Pointillator and learn how dots can look different from a distance away. Students then use Q-Tips and use only the tips to apply the paint. They should not move the Q-Tip so that the shape is a dot. In the beginning, students will probably be random with colors and placement. With some direction, you can get the students to form shapes and pay attention to color selection.

Resources:

Georges Seurat, 1859-1891: The Master of Pointillism - As a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Seurat read Chevreul's 1839 book on the theory of colour and this, along with his own analysis of Delacroix' paintings, led him to formulate the concept of Divisionism. This was a method of painting around colour contrasts in which shade and tone are built up through dots of paint (pointillism) that emphasize the complex inter-relation of light and shadow.

Georges Seurat (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) - This book provides the key biographical details of Seurat's life, but it is the development of his peculiar painting style that Venezia emphasize more. So the art history lesson here is what young readers will take away from reading this book. There are sixteen drawings and paintings representing the entire course of Seurat's career, along with three studies for "Une Baigndae, Asnieres" to go along with two studies and one detail from "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

Left: Close-up of the painting on the right, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat.

Poster: Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Print by Georges Seura