Learning Projection Art for Children

Have you ever been handed a pencil and asked to draw a person? If you ended up drawing a very primitive stick figure in an attempt to laugh off the insecurity you felt about your artistic abilities. Now imagine – you, the artist, producing beautiful paintings, from small panels to large wall murals. That’s the power of Projection Art.

Paint Pen Projection Art and Projection Stenciling, both painting techniques you need a picture and some way of enlarging it or transferring surface. The picture can be taken from this or any other book, adapted from a comic book or magazine, or drawn from your own imagination.

The type of art you are reproducing will determine which method of Projection Art you choose. If the image has an outline, as many cartoons and ink drawings do, you’ll use the paint pen method of painting. If your image is comprised of blocks of color, like some photographs or paintings, you’ll want to use the stenciling method.

Cover of Projection Stenciling

Paint Pen Projection Art and Projection Stenciling both require enlarging and tracing an image, but each one has a very different painting method. For this reason, once enlarging and tracing are discussed, the book is divided into two sections, one for paint pen projects and the other for stenciling projects. No matter which method you choose you can’t help but impress yourself!

Note to Parents: Because of safety concerns surrounding the use of craft knives and spray adhesive, Projection Stenciling projects should be restricted to older children. This does not mean, however, that young children cannot be involved in the painting process. They can participate in the selection of projects for their room and can help with actually painting the walls. Because stenciling is a “dry paint” technique, even a very young child can paint in designated areas as long as you load his paint applicator and off-load the excess paint before he begins stenciling. You can be sure your child will take great pride in any contribution he has made to the artwork.

As soon as children are old enough to trace they can do Projection Art projects with paint pens; and practice on paper before undertaking wall murals. If you do the tracing and the projecting for them, even very young children can get involved in Projection Art. By projecting and tracing your drawings onto large sheets of paper you can create a giant coloring book for them to color in with crayons, paint pens, or color washes.

For both types of Projection Art, paint pen projection and projection stenciling, you need a method of enlarging your image or transferring it from the printed page onto your painting surface. There are three ways to enlarge a design for stenciling – photocopying, using the grid system, or using a light projector. If your project is small, photocopying may be the best option. If the project is large and you don’t have access to a projector, the grid system is the way to go.