Splatter self portrait

We found our inspiration from blogger Meri Cherry. You can check it out at http://www.mericherry.com/2014/07/13/self-portraits-3-5-year-olds/. We changed it up a little by adding pre-made paints to the mix and we didn't make our own canvas, as we found one in our craft supplies. My 4 year old absolutely loves creating this. She loved splattering the paint (which we did inside). I would definitely recommend to do this project outside if messes trouble you. 

We started the project in the morning. We mixed paints and talked about primary and secondary colors. Then miss L named her colors. She named her pinkish color "florist pink" (I know pink isn't a secondary color, she insisted she needed it so we improvised). Her green she named "mintish green", purple was "violet" and orange was "love and harmony orange". Naming the colors was a lot of fun! Once we made the colors, we added a bit of water to them to help with the splatter effect. 

Next we started painting. I showed miss L how to tap the brush gently and let the paint fly. Her eyes instantly widened with excitement and she went to work. Paint ended up on the canvas, on miss L, on me and all over the dining room. Thank goodness it was washable! I joined in on the fun and the canvas was covered in about 20 minutes. 

We let the canvas dry and then I handed L a handheld mirror. I asked her to look at the shape of her face, then paint just the shape of it and to really focus on the lines. We continued this with her neck, eyes, nose and mouth. She was concerned we forgot about the hair so she looked in the mirror and added it! 

I loved this project. I hope you guys give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did! We will definitely be doing this one again!