Stencil Painting Ideas For Kids Using Canvas

These easy canvas painting ideas for kids are a great way to not only have some creative time, but also work on fine motor skills, and learn about colors. Canvas painting ideas for kids are a fun way to learn and a great way to express inner creativity. Kids of all ages will love trying out acrylic painting on a blank canvas.

Canvas Painting Ideas For Kids

Kids will love making beautiful paintings on canvas that they can give as gifts or hang in their bedrooms. We are going to show you how to use stencils to start off their masterpiece.

Related: Bubble painting is fun

This canvas art project is perfect for kids from kindergarten up to teenagers. As kids get older they’ll have more practice to stay inside the lines, blend more colors combinations, and add more details to their artwork.

What Age is Best for Painting on Canvas?

Here are some tips by age when doing canvas painting projects:

• Preschoolers & Kindergartners: Choose a very simple stencil with large spaces
• Grade schoolers: Let the kids get creative and don’t worry too much about “staying inside the lines”
• Older kids & adults: Get tweens, teens and adults involved in making their own stencils or finding more ornate templates to use.

Related: Check out this painters tape art project that works for even younger kids using a canvas

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Supplies Needed For These Canvas Painting Ideas

How To Do Easy Canvas Paintings Using Stencils

Step 1

Place a stencil on top of the canvas and trace around it. Kids will have an easier time tracing around stencils made from cardboard or that have a sticky back on them. You might need to help trace around the smaller parts if the stencil is detailed.

As you can see below, we traced around three stencils, going from an easy fox and mountains to a more detailed owl.

Step 2

Put paint onto a paper plate and teach them about mixing colors.

Step 3

Add a little black to colors to make them darker, and white to make them lighter. We did that to paint the mountains. Learning how to create new colors with a few basics makes art more cost-effective for you too. All you need is to have the basics on hand and show them how adding a little more or a little less of another color creates another beautiful shade they can use.

Step 4

As they get more confident with mixing different colors, teach them about layering colors to make fun backgrounds and features. If the colors blend, that’s great, and if they don’t, that’s great too. Art is how they see it, so let them create.

Step 5

Next, have them add a little paint to their brush in a couple of different colors. Wipe just a little of it off on the paper plate, then brush the rest onto the canvas like with the owl painting below.

Finished Canvas painting

These nature inspired paintings are artwork kids will love to hang in their bedroom or play room.

Canvas Painting Inspiration

While there is no real step by step tutorial for easy canvas paintings, using your imagination is a great way to create the best art. Making your own stencils is so much fun. But if you’re looking for some easy painting ideas or are not great at drawing, check out some of these drawing tutorials for inspiration.

Regardless of what you paint, these easy paintings will look great in the living room. Or even make great gifts for grandparents especially if you use a large canvas.

Want To Mix Up Your Canvas Painting Ideas?

• Instead of painting animals try making abstract art by making stencils with all sorts of different shapes and unique patterns.
• Try making a new color by mixing all the colors or some of the colors and painting things your favorite colors.
• What about liquid watercolors? Water colors give canvas paintings unique looks.
• What about washable paints like Crayola finger paints to fill in the stencils?
• Try one of these butterfly painting ideas for kids

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How did your canvas paintings turn out?