Sunday, August 24, 2003
Children put their stamp of approval on handprint art.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The Ostrander family may make art with footprints, but kids have been making art with their handprints for decades.
The trick is to paint the hand with a brush and then press the hand onto paper.
Little kids do best when someone older holds the hand and presses it down for them. Once the paint is dry, add faces and other features to complete the drawing. Also, consider tracing the hand, to avoid the mess with paint.
Here are some ideas for hand-related art. Try these or make up your own. And don't forget your sense of humor -- some of these are imaginative interpretations:
UTurkey: With brown paint, use one hand with fingers spread for a side view. Use two handprints with thumbs together for a front view. (Make those prints one at a time or the paint can get out of control.)
UDove: Take that turkey front view and make it with white paint on blue paper.
UButterfly or peacock: Same as the dove -- but with different colors on each finger.
USpider: Using just the fingers and black paint, make two prints that put the heels of the hands together.
ULion: Make the head with a circle of yellow paint, then make the mane using just fingers painted orange. Draw a face once the paint dries.
UHorse: Paint the hand brown and make a print. Turn the paper upside down and treat the thumb as the head, the fingers as legs. Draw eyes, a mane and a tail. Or use black and white and make a zebra.
UGhost: Using white paint on black paper, make a print, then turn the page upside down and add eyes.
UOctopus: The ghost, but with green on blue or white paper.
UFace with hair: The fingers represent hair.
UFlowers: One handprint, made without the thumbprint, can represent a tulip. Or make a circle and use fingers to make a daisy or sunflower.
USun: Same as sunflower.
UTree: Paint a trunk and branches. Make "leaves" with handprints.
UHeart: Paint the hands red and make prints with overlapped palms.
UAngel: Paint the body, use handprints as wings.