Art techniques for kids: 10 to try on screen and paper

Art techniques

Ten art techniques, each one on screen and on paper

Every technique here works twice: in Extreme Drawing, where the paper behaves like real paper, and at your kitchen table with ordinary materials. Pick one by mess, age or what is already in the cupboard.

Play in your browser Choose a technique

Ages about 4 to 10
Real materials lists
Honest app vs paper notes

Painted illustration of the painter sprinkling glitter on a glue star, beside salt on a glue line soaking up blue paint, stickers, ink droppers, a stencil and tape.

What you’ll find here

Each page shows one art technique for children aged about 4 to 10: what you’ll make, how it works in Extreme Drawing, how to do it for real with a materials list and steps, seasonal variations, and why it works, in two sentences for kids and a paragraph for grown-ups.

Why do it on screen first? In the app the paper is a real simulation: watercolour bleeds along the fibres, wax pushes paint away, salt soaks up colour. Children can try a technique ten times in five minutes, see what the water does, and then do it once, properly, on paper. Some steps, like burning the edges of a treasure map, stay on the screen.

How to choose. Short on time? Crayon resist takes 20 minutes. Want no mess at all? A sun print. Ready for the big mess? Shaving cream marbling. Every page lists age, time, mess and whether an adult is needed.

Paint and water

Techniques where water carries the colour: it spreads, races, gathers at the edge and leaves tide lines.

Painted illustration of the painter brushing a rainbow watercolour that bleeds into wet paper, with crayons, markers, a paint box and a child's rainbow drawing.

Watercolour for kids

Wet-on-wet blends, crisp edges, blooms, salt stars and blotted clouds.

Painted illustration of the painter dripping blue, pink and yellow paint onto a salt-covered glue star and flower on dark card, the colour spreading along the salt.

Salt painting

Draw with glue, add salt, and watch colour race along the line.

Painted illustration of the painter blowing coloured bubbles over a bowl through a straw and holding up paper printed with lacy blue and pink rings.

Bubble painting

Blow coloured bubbles and print their lacy rings.

Painted illustration of the painter holding up a tea-stained treasure map with a crayon island, a dotted path and a red cross, a cup of tea and a tea bag beside him.

Old treasure map

Tea stains with tide lines make paper look a hundred years old.

Resist and scratch

Techniques where something keeps the colour off: wax, a sticker, or the shadow of a leaf.

Painted illustration of the painter brushing blue watercolour over paper, revealing a white crayon fish and bubbles.

Crayon resist

Paint over a crayon drawing and the wax pushes the paint away. Includes the white-crayon secret message.

Painted illustration of the painter scratching through black paint with a wooden stick to reveal a rainbow rocket, planets and stars.

Scratch art

Bright crayon, black paint on top, then scratch a rainbow out of the dark. No kit needed.

Painted illustration of the painter on a sunny windowsill lifting a leaf off faded blue paper, where the leaf, a key and a star left darker shapes.

Sun print

Fade coloured paper in a sunny window and keep the shapes of whatever lay on it.

Print and marble

Techniques where colour is moved onto the paper from something else: a stamp, a bed of foam, a tray of water.

Painted illustration of the painter pressing a potato star stamp, with rows of colourful star prints, roller stripes, a stencil and paint trays.

Stamping, rollers and stencils

Potato stamps, rolling-pin patterns and home-made stencils.

Painted illustration of the painter scraping shaving foam off a card to show a marbled print, beside a tray of foam swirled with food colouring.

Shaving cream marbling

Swirl food colouring on shaving foam, press paper on, scrape.

Painted illustration of the painter lifting a sheet of paper with a red, blue and yellow marbled pattern off a tray of floating inks.

Paper marbling on water

Ink rings floating on water, combed into feathers and printed.

Choose by age, time and mess

For the youngest (3–4): crayon resist, sun print, stamping (an adult cuts), watercolour with a chunky brush.
Under half an hour: crayon resist, watercolour, bubble painting, stamping.
Over a few days: sun print, salt painting (dries overnight).
Almost no mess: sun print, crayon resist.
Gloriously messy: shaving cream marbling, bubble painting, marbling on water. More ideas on the messy play page.
For a classroom: crayon resist and sun prints fit science topics on materials and light; see the teachers’ pages.

Messy play ideas Ideas for teachers Rainy-day ideas

Questions parents ask

Which art techniques are good for 4-year-olds?

Crayon resist, sun prints, stamping and simple watercolour work well from about 4: short steps, quick results and little that can go wrong. Salt painting and bubble painting work too, with an adult close by.

Which techniques need no special materials?

Crayon resist, tea-stained paper, potato stamps and sun prints use things most homes already have. Marbling on water is the one that needs a kit.

Do I need the app to try these?

No. Every page has the real version with materials and steps. The app is a way to try a technique first, as often as you like, and to see the parts that stay on the screen.

Try a technique on screen first

Open Extreme Drawing in your browser and paint with salt, scratch through black paint or leave a page in the sun for a week.

Play in your browser See the experiments