“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
We developed a new art activity inspired by #GivingTuesday, for one of our Zoom art program sessions that we held on the same day, and we’re excited to share it with you. It’s a thoughtful, introspective activity, that works at any time of year and especially resonates during the holiday season.
You can also facilitate or try this activity using any type of art supplies – crayons, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, watercolor paints, acrylic paints, etc. – and you can even combine it with other techniques, such as the Crayon Resist Technique (see here for details) or Wax Resist Technique. At minimum, you will need a piece of paper, pencil and/or pen (Sharpie recommended), and your preferred art medium to add color!
If you’re trying this with a group, allocate 10-15 minutes for the introductions, warm-up, and art activity discussion. The specific recommended warm-up activity will depend on the age of the children, their needs, etc. as well as how often you’ve engaged with them. However, if it makes sense, you can try a quick feelings check-in with your participants. Ask your artists to take a moment to check-in with themselves: “How are you feeling? If you could pick a color for this feeling, what would it be?” (Hint: they’ll use this color in their art!).
In-Person Option: Go around your group and ask each participant to share their color for how they are feeling today. Let them know that they can always pass and share later.
Zoom Alternative: If not everyone can share their screen or use the microphone, you could have each participant edit their Zoom name to include their first name, color.
Both: You can also ask the artists to pick up a color for how they’re feeling (i.e. color of marker) and on the count of three, you all hold them up together.
If you’re trying this activity for yourself, check in with yourself too!
After your initial introductions and warm-up, you can briefly discuss or contemplate the concept of generosity and how we can give to others. If you’re working with your kids or a class, open up the group for brainstorming and discussion. For our group, we defined generosity as “giving good things to others freely” which gives us the power to make a positive change in the lives of others. Ask participants to share different ways we can give to others, including things like our time, talents, kindness, etc. Try writing down all the thoughts on a physical or digital board for all to see. Afterwards, ask them if they can think of a time when someone showed them generosity or they showed it to someone else. This a good sharing and growth opportunity!
Wrap up with the idea that we’re now going to explore our own giving hearts.
Here Are The “Giving Heart” Art Activity Instructions:
Pull out one piece of watercolor or mixed media paper (regular paper is ok too if that’s what you have!), and tell yourself or your participants that you’re going to draw one large heart on the piece of paper, oriented vertically or horizontally. To draw this heart, we’re first going to pick a color for how we’re feeling (remember, we already did this in the warm-up!). For our activity, we chose to use oil pastels for this first part. We also used this as an opportunity to go over a couple ways to draw a heart and opened it up to the artists to share any other ways they draw hearts.
Proceed to follow the instructions in these slides:
For our group of artists, since we had been engaged together weekly for a while at this point, we chose to add to this activity by introducing the technique of Pointillism, or as we describe it, “art using lots of dots.” In general, artists can try creating with pointillism using any material, as long as they can make a dot! We chose to do the activity with watercolor paints, so the artists could use their fingertips, q-tips, the eraser on a pencil, or whatever else that creatively could form a dot on the page. Most artists chose to use their fingers and try coloring in their hearts with dots for the first part.
Participants can test their use of dots and how overlapping colors of dots can trick the mind to blend the overlapping spots into a fuller range of tones.
As shown on the slide, for the second part, the artists were encouraged to explore line, shape, and color to show how their hearts feel when giving gifts.
Here is an example of one of the drawings from our activity:
This activity has a lot of flexibility, so you can adjust the examples for younger or older children with different skill levels.
Once You’re Done…
As artists wrap up their creations, ask them to take a quiet moment, observe their artwork, and see if they notice anything. Ask, “Are the colors you used on the outside of your heart similar or different than the colors you used on the inside?”
When everyone is done with the activity, you can invite each participant to share their artwork and tell you about it and what they noticed, if they would like to do so. If they don’t feel quite comfortable sharing or are shy, you can propose they share just a glimpse of their artwork visually. Or if they don’t want to share at all, you can ask them if they can simply share if they tried painting with dots and if they liked it, either verbally or in the chat (and you, the facilitator, can read it).
Once the artwork is dry, you can hang or frame it to remind you of your giving heart! If you’re working with a group of participants, you can ask everyone to hold up their artwork, even if it’s not complete, so that you can share all of your giving hearts. It’s fun to take a moment and observe all the different colors, shapes, and approaches used too. You can also have participants send photos of their artwork or upload it externally to create a digital collaborative piece.
Try this activity for yourself, with your kids at home, or those children that you support through volunteering or your work endeavors. Comment below to let us know how it goes. You can also post and tag us in your drawings @GiveKidsArt – we love to see their creations!
Need art supplies for your home, classroom, or organization?
We love using Color Swell art materials in our Art Kits and for our art programs, especially their watercolor paint sets. We originally found them on Amazon and have ordered their crayons, markers, paints, and oil pastels. They are great quality, while also being affordable and they offer bulk quantities. Plus, it’s a better deal to purchase on their website.
