Dragonfly Art Project

I'm a big fan of the art projects That Artist Lady posts on her blog. They're projects she does with elementary students in schools and as a result she gives great step-by-step instructions.

Some time ago I marked this dragonfly art as a project to do with Sunshine, and we finally sat down and did it.

I showed Sunshine the finished project, then printed out the dragonfly template and cut them out for her and traced them onto a page from her sketchbook.

After talking about colors and mixing them to get a certain look, she got to work painting the dragonfly bodies.

Next we glopped a little drywall mud on the board and she used the tip of a paintbrush to make the mud look like blades of grass.

We set everything aside for the day to let the mud dry thoroughly.

The next day she painted the sky, using different shades of blue to add interest. While it dried, she drew the veins on the wings of the dragonflies.

A few hours later she went back and painted the grass. For her second coat of paint on the grass she used a couple shades of green to add depth. She actually ended up doing a third coat of green paint to tone down some orangey-brown paint she'd used a bit too much of on the second coat. Once toned down, it looked quite nice.

I cut out the dragonflies for her and she glued some rhinestones on for eyes. The last step was to glue the dragonflies on the board.

I think it turned out great and I love the 3-D quality of it. The different textures really make it a fun project. It wasn't a quick project because we had to wait for drywall mud and paint to dry, but it was definitely something she could do herself, and she enjoyed the process and can't wait for the next project. Too bad all the projects on my list aren't like this one...