“I promise to only make dots, swirls, or swiggles within my design and will not press the tips down. I will not shake the marker as I work.”
Cat Painting Tutorial for Kids
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Kids will love painting this cat painting as an activity for a birthday party! It’s such a cute painting and is even more fun to paint with the bright fun colors painted on the canvas.
If you have a cat-obsessed child who enjoys painting and is starting to explore detail, this will be a great activity for them. While this is intended for a cat birthday party, it can serve as a fun cat activity at any time.
While it does explore some detail painting, this cat activity is relatively simple. Paint down the base, paint the cat head, and then add some detail. That’s all there is to it!
Cat Birthday Party Activity
This cat painting is most ideal as an activity for a birthday party that is cat-themed. I will be sharing even more cat crafts and activities followed by an entire cat birthday party! If you’re considering choosing a cat birthday party for your child, you will love some of these crafts and activities.
They are so simple, fun, and are sure to make for a fun birthday party. Stay tuned for the rest of the posts in this series!
Ready to learn how to make this cat painting? Scroll down below for the full instructions.
Cat Painting Supplies
To make this cat painting activity, you’ll need these supplies:
- Tempura paints – white, black, grey, teal, pink, and purple
- Fine detail paintbrush
- Angled square foam paintbrush
- 8 x 10 canvas
- Tabletop display easel
How to Make a Cat Painting
To get started, paint 2.5-inch stripes of paint using the foam paintbrush in pink, teal, and purple colored paints – covering the entire canvas. Allow the paint to dry for a few minutes. Wipe the leftover paint off using a towel or rinse brush. We dabbed it on a paper towel and it wiped almost all of it off without bleeding through to the next color.
Next, paint a circle of black paint in the middle of the canvas with the foam paintbrush.
Gently dot the black paint around the edge of the circle using the angled tip of the foam paintbrush so that it appears like hair.
Paint 2 lines that meet to create a triangle ear on each side of the cat’s head.
Dot the black paint around the edge of the ear to add hair to the triangle you just painted.
Now using the fine detail paintbrush, fill each ear with grey paint and draw a small grey upsidedown triangle in the middle of the cat face to form the nose; rinse paintbrush.
Draw the whiskers with white paint using the fine detail brush on each side of the cat’s head. Add 2 big white circles to form the eyes and let it dry for a few minutes.
Paint slightly smaller black circles inside the white eyes to form the pupils using the fine detail brush and let it dry for a few minutes.
Lastly, use the fine detail brush to paint a small streak of white paint on each corner of the eye to form the appearance of a reflection.
Allow at least an hour for the cat painting to dry. You’re finished!
Yield: one
What age is this project good for?
We love doing this project with 2nd graders. You can obviously modify it for any aged child. But we have found that second graders can really use their imaginations and have fun creating cats without worrying too much about it looking realistic.
According to Laurel Burch Studios, Laurel Burch was an artist that was born in 1945. In the 1960’s she began creating colorful and playful artworks in San Francisco, CA. Now her artworks can be found reproduced on all sorts of items from T-shirts to bags.
I actually scored this bag at a garage sale and the kids really do love seeing artwork and designs in person.
Laurel Burch did not have any formal training as an artist. Wikipedia notes that she always struggled with osteoporosis and had over 100 bone breaks in her lifetime. She still overcame her physical obstacles to share her creativity with the world.
By talking about her life with children, you are able to get them to see how people preserve and overcome tough times.
Not to mention her patterned cat and other animal artworks that are perfect to discuss with young children. They love how playful, colorful and creative these artworks are.
If you love this drawing project, then you may also want to check out how you can make slab clay cats as a different lesson.
Looking At Fantastic Feline Examples
When looking at Laurel Burch’s animal projects, you can get children to notice certain things about her work. You can use questions like the following to help:
- What kind of patterns do you see?
- Are these realistic cats?
- Why do you think she chose these colors?
- Are those normal cat eyes? How would you describe them?
- What other types of lines do you notice in her work?
Recommended Supplies
- 12” x 18” White Drawing Paper-you can do these smaller, but we like the scale of completing this on larger white paper.
- Variety Of Markers-Having skinny markers and chisel tip markers will provide children the opportunity to make a decision on which type will work best for their designs.
- Black Permanent Marker
- Pencil
- Gold or Silver Paint Marker-even 2nd graders can use these markers if you give them some guidelines and helpful tips that we list below.
Optional
- 2 colors of watercolor paint for the background
