A simple yet elegant art project to do with kids is to color with oil pastels on black paper. The bold colors really pop against the black. You can do an outer space scene, a night time scene, or a cave. You could draw confetti or fireworks against a dark sky. Another design would be to start in the middle of the page with a star or circle, and draw designs outward from it, making everything symmetrical in a radial pattern.
Oil pastels are brighter than regular crayons, and you can get them in the art supply section of most stores. The lighter colors show up better than the darker ones, if you are using a piece of black card stock paper or construction paper for the background.
Here are some other ideas for night time scenes:
- a city with all the windows of its buildings lit up
- the Milky Way
- the phases of the moon going across the sky
- Big Ben in London
- trees with snow silhouetted against the night sky
- an observatory
- a spaceship moving through outer space
- an owl swooping down to catch a mouse
- bats hanging upside-down on a tree branch
Make sure you have plenty of black paper before you begin! You can also spread out a huge black paper on the wall, and kids can use oil pastels to draw on the black wall!
Tags: art, Homeschooling, oil pastels, paper craft
That is a lovely piece of art.
I remember coloring with oil pastels on black paper when in elementary school.
I love how bright colors pop against black.
Those look amazing! I have both oil pastels and black paper…I see some art happening this week!
It’s a simple and fun art project for all ages!