Art Class for Children: To Illustrate an Animal with Relief Art

Creating three-dimensional art encourages children to consider not only the colour and line in the painting but also the pop up element. The way in which the paper is used may highlight the animal’s prominent feature. The aim of the art lesson is to encourage children to make cognitive choices on how to apply the paper art.

Paper Art Lesson Plan for Kids

Ocean Creatures
Harriet Busby

Relief art includes elements that stick out from the painting. In this case, the painting will incorporate a focal point that projects from the image by the creative use of paper to highlight a chosen animal’s trait. Children may firstly participate in a thought-shower session naming animals possessing interesting physical features. Connections can be made such as:

Dolphins: snouty nose, aquiline fin.
Shark: Jagged teeth, bladed fin.
Crocodile: scaly back, bumpy head.
Stick insect: spindly legs, stick-like body.
Penguins: webbed feet, button eyes.
Anteater: long nose, hooked toes.
And so forth.

Kid’s Art Lesson for Kinesthetic Learning

Children may then select an animal and the physical feature that is to be the focus of the painting. Suggestions might be as follows:

• To suggest sharp shark’s teeth, trace the outline of the shark’s mouth and cut a series of jagged points from the main shape. Fold them outwards to suggest razor teeth before sticking it on (see image).
• To suggest tendrils of the jellyfish, carefully cut the long, curved shapes and then scour a fingernail along each tendril to make the paper curly.
• To suggest movement of the animal such as a cheetah or snake, cut out the animal shape and mount it on a concertinaed piece of paper before sticking it on the image. The animal will appear to wobble and caper from the surface of the painting.

Materials for Relief Art

As well as the customary good quality painting materials, children will also require:

• Scissors
• Glue and/or sticky tape
• Paper of varying stiffnesses for different 3D effects
• Visual resources for inspiration, such as magazine cuttings of animal imagery.

The Art Method for Relief Artwork

Children may create the backdrop to the animal featured which might be:

• An underwater scene.
• Safari grasslands.
• A rainforest.
• Mountains.

Timekeeping is the essence here, as children may get bogged down with detail leaving little time for the paper craft. The use of wide brushes and a limited palette might be wise.

With the outline of the animal drawn, create the focal point via the paper art. Children may think about whether to use the 3D element for the whole animal or a part of it. In the case of the shark, only the teeth might be needed for the effect. Children may colour in the cutout shape prior to sticking it on.

Art Challenge for Kids

To get the maximum 3D effect, view the artwork under oblique lighting. Shadows cast will make the 3D element appear more obvious. Photographs can be taken for future reference.

Creating imagery incorporating a three-dimensional aspect will stretch kid’s creative skills, as the painting has an added element. Not only does line and colour need to be taken into account but also the relief area of the painting. The simplest resources such as paper, glue and scissors will create effective 3D artwork. Children of differing abilities may use relief art in many different ways which might be one cutout shape or a menagerie of plumes.

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