Dot Art Project

Each summer, Olivia enjoys doing art projects for county fair. She enters some under the "art" category and others in the "craft" category. These, by far, are two of her favorite project areas.

This year, as we looked at Pinterest for ideas, we came across a pin for an art project based on Aboriginal dot painting. It is based on the Indigenous art found in Australia.

The pin led us to Dilly-Dali Art that suggested that before starting the project, it would be a good idea to do a Google search for inspiration.

I also wanted Olivia to learn a bit more about Indigenous Australian art, so we visited Wikipedia. We read about this type of art work which was interesting.

To do the project, you'll need:
- tempera or acrylic paint (Olivia used acrylic paint)
- cotton swabs
- dark marker to outline image
- image of an animal
- paper (copy/printer paper and painting paper)

Since the areas on the dolphins were smaller, Olivia  adapted the project a bit and used markers for the image of the dolphins and paint for the image of the water.

The first step is to find an image and print it on white paper. Trace the image with a dark marker. Transfer the image to a piece of painting paper either by using the light from a window or a light-box.

Once the image is on the paper, you can begin adding color to the picture. Olivia started with the dolphins since they were done with markers.

She made lots of little dots within the outlines of dolphins in different colors.

Once she was done with making the dots on the dolphins, she put some acrylic paint on a plate and dipped cotton swabs in it.

Without getting an overabundance of paint on the swab, she dabbed the swabs onto the paper to leave dots.

She enjoyed doing this project - from learning about and seeing images of Aboriginal dot art to making her own version inspired by indigenous artists.