Preschool Art: Pretty Painted Peacocks

Pretty Painted Peacocks is a fun, Eric Carl-inspired art project that is suitable for preschoolers, as well as older children, and is also a great lesson in cool and warm colors. The children and their parents will love this beautiful piece of art!

I was perusing the internet for a fun art project for my summer preschool art program. (read about my preschool art projects here) Note: this would be an awesome project for school-age children, as well.

I found this beautiful peacock project it on whatever: crafts and art blog. And, she found it on SmART Class. While many, or most of the projects I choose are my original ideas, I do look for inspiration elsewhere and strongly believe that Creative Inspiration should be shared to inspire others. Also, give credit where it is due!!! So, thank you to the two bloggers who helped make 39 adorable preschoolers happy artists!

You will need: 

• Large white construction paper (for the peacock) 
• Smaller white construction paper (for circles on feathers, irises of eyes, and for head and neck) 
• Large colored construction paper (for the background) 
• Tempera paints in warm colors (orange, red, and yellow) 
• Tempera paints in cool colors (blue, green, and purple) 
• Larger size paint brushes 
• Template for feathers (I made mine from poster board) 
• Circle template for spot on feathers 
• Smaller circle template for iris of eye 
• Almond eye-shape template for eyeball 
• Large black Sharpie or other permanent marker to draw eyelashes and pupil 
• Glue of your choice (we used Elmers-type white glue) 
• Q-tips and paper plates (for gluing) 
• Glitter and white glue 
• Muffin tins (I used the disposable ones from the dollar store and have used the same ones for the past three years)

Teacher will need to make templates, using large poster board, for the feathers, spots on feathers, eye, and eyeballs. (see above supply list) Make enough for several children. When it comes time for the children to trace, using the templates, they can share.

Session One - Here is what we did: We talked about warm (we used red, orange and yellow) and cool colors (we used blue, green and purple) All of the older children knew what they were and loved shouting out their knowledge! They were so cute!

Pour blue, green, and purple tempera paints into muffin tins. (kids can share)

Instruct the children to fill the entire large, white sheet of construction paper. (This will be used for the feathers)

Use the back of the paintbrush to draw lines and swirls in the paint. Kids love this part and it makes for a more interesting final effect.

Set cool-color paintings aside to dry, and move on to the warm colors. Follow the same process as the cool-color paintings.

This next step was a hit! Paint each child's hand as shown above. Older kids can do their own.

Most kids were completely ticklish and squirmed and giggled. They loved the feel of the paint on their hands and loved the mess. They even enjoyed getting to move on to hand washing.

Help children to carefully stamp their hand on the smaller sheet of white construction paper. This will be the peacock's head. Paint a neck with the paintbrush. Refer to one of the finished peacock pictures for reference as to how long and thick to make the neck.

Let all paintings dry at least overnight. I only teach at this school once a week, so we had to finish the next part of the process a week later.

Session Two

Using a feather template, trace the feather shape five times on the cool-colors painting, using a piece of white chalk. (adult help, if needed) Cut out the feathers. For the sake of time and safety, teachers of younger children can do the cutting. Older children will enjoy this part with ease.

Trace five circle shapes, using the templates onto the warm-color paintings, and cut them out. Save a piece for the eyeball.

Provide paper plates with white glue on them and Q-tips for applying glue.

Glue one circle on the wide part of each feather. Arrange and glue each feather together, as shown above. Glue entire feather piece onto large, colored construction paper. (I offered two choices- green or magenta)

Cut out peacock head and neck. (printed hand shape)

Trace and cut out eye, using almond-shaped template. Trace and cut out eyeball from a scrap of the warm-colored painting. Glue eyeball to eye shape. Glue finished eye onto peacock head. Using large, black Sharpie, draw big, fun eyelashes. and pupil. (make sure there is no wet glue before you do this)

Finally, have each child dab glue on to their peacock where they want it to sparkle. Sprinkle with glitter of their choice. Shake off glitter.

The Masterpieces!!!

The little guy, who made this was only 2 1/2 and he missed the first week when we did the painting. So, we improvised and his teacher took him aside and assisted him in creating his own version using markers and left over scraps from other kids paintings. He loved his peacock and the entire process! Oh, he was adorable exclaiming gleefully during the whole project!

Proud Artists!

The paintings caused quite a stir in the hallway, drying. It was like a mini gallery showing.

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