Kids Art: Net-Painted Pond Fish Cut Paper Collage

On and off we love to make textured papers in various colors - a great way to use up paints doled out for that session, as well as to explore various materials to create textures.

Once the painted textured papers are dry, they get sorted by color and put into the "Specialty Papers" cubby.

Many fun projects have come out of sifting through the specialty papers we've collected over time and finding new ways to use them. Most often they end up as cut-paper collages or Valentine hearts or greeting cards, something special.

One of the techniques we learnt from Irene Luxbacher's Jumbo Book of Art is to do "Net Painting" to create the scaled texture of fish.

Items Used:
A net bag such as the ones onions or fruits come in
acrylic paints (or tempera)
rag cloth pieces
cardstock (or other heavyweight) paper
rubberband or string or yarn to tie the net bag

1. Stuff a few pieces of rag cloth in the net bag and tie it closed.
2. Dole out some acrylic paints on a plate, dip the net bag filled with cloth, dab onto the cardstock paper.
3. Experiment first with how much pressure to apply, and how much paint to pick up to create the desired texture; try a combination of colors; add acrylic medium if the paints are too thick, or dilute a bit with water.
4. Allow to dry and cut out fish shape for the collage

Textured Papers Used for this Net-Painted Pond Fish Collage:

1. Background is Watercolor Plastic Wrap paper
2. Pond vegetation is Salt Sprinkled paper and Watercolor Plastic wrap paper
3. Fish is from Net-Painted paper

Oggie helped make the background and pond vegetation papers.

Ana helped with net painting and cutting out the pond plants and fish.

I added the details to the fish using chalk pastels and composed the collage.

Both the kids helped "glue" the pieces with the double-sided tape for added dimension.