Water Balloon Painting Activity
Is there anything more fun than playing with water balloons in the summer? We all know how much fun it is to throw them around, but did you know you can make beautiful artwork with them as well?
Materials List
- Water balloons
- Water
- 1 large roll of easel paper or butcher paper
- 4 large rocks
- Washable tempera paints
- Containers to hold the paint (big enough to dip the water balloons into them)
DIRECTIONS:
-
Fill up a few balloons with water. Try not to fill them too full as you don’t want them to burst while painting with them. (Although the chance that they may burst makes it all the more fun!)
-
Lay the paper down on the ground and secure the corners with rocks so the wind doesn’t blow the paper away.
-
Add your paint to the containers.
-
Dip a balloon in some paint and start painting on the paper. There are lots of different ways to use the balloons. Try rolling, spinning, dabbing and swirling them in loops to make beautiful patterns on the paper.
-
Allow the artwork to completely dry before moving it.
THE HOWS AND WHYS
Water balloon painting is an excellent process art activity. Process art is when the focus is on the creative process and not on the end product. Balloons are an unconventional tool to use to create art, and allows you to think differently and creatively about how you can use the balloons to make art.
VARIATION
What fun techniques can you come up with using the balloons as paintbrushes? Try filling regular balloons with a small amount of colored water and then poking a small hole in the end using a safety pin. Squeeze the balloon so the colored water starts to come out and see what beautiful splatter painting creations you can make!