10 Abstract Art Projects: Hands-On Learning Stations

Abstract art is so much fun. All you do is take an object and reinvent it in some way. It's pretty fun to play with different ways to express yourself with abstract artwork. Additionally, kids are great at it, and will love to join in on the fun. I've gathered up ten of my favorite abstract art ideas to share with you today. I hope you enjoy!

I'm focusing on Art this week in my 31+ Days of Hands-On Learning Stations series, and today is all about abstract art.

1. Leaf Abstract Zoom

If you're looking for a simple abstract art project, try taking a basic object and zooming in. Focusing on the lines of the veins, students will have an opportunity to enjoy a bit of a nature study while expressing the beauty of nature in an alternative way.

We were inspired by this great oil pastels and watercolor project. Simply draw the veins of the leaves with a black oil pastel crayon, then paint over with fall inspired watercolor paints. These turned out to be a truly stunning project!

 

2. Abstract Art Tree

This is a super fun project. The trick is to draw a very simple drawing, then divide it in four quadrants. Color each quadrant with various pop colors, and you have an Andy Warhol style drawing. Oil pastels are really fun to work with because they offer such rich and vibrant depth of color.

Materials needed:

• manila paper
• oil pastels

3. Abstract Word Art

This has been one of my kids' favorite abstract projects for  a long time. All you do to make abstract word art is write the first letter of your word really big in the center of your paper. Turn your paper, and write the next letter. Continue turning and writing letters until you've completed your word. You'll end up with an interesting overlapping of letters.

Go back and color in the shapes, trying to avoid having the same two colors touching. My son tore his paper in the shape of a fall leaf to go with the word "Fall" that he used to make his abstract pattern.

 

4. Kandinsky Tree Collage

I thought this Kandinsky Tree Collage project was so cool. Trees can be tricky to draw and represent. These cute cut and paste trees offer young ones an opportunity to play with color as well as pattern and proportion.

5. Leaf Lines

When you take a nature walk and gather those fun fall leaves, bring them home for some art. Tape them to a piece of paper and draw concentric outlines around the leaf shapes. It can be a fascinating study on the shapes of leaves.

6. Scream Art

Scream Art is so much fun! All you need to do is draw a surprised or screaming face, and then go crazy with the hair. We used a straw to blow liquid watercolors around on watercolor paper. I think it turned out really fun.

7. 3D Hand Art

My girls love using this simple technique to turn a 2D piece of paper into a 3D illusion. You lightly trace your hand in pencil, then draw lines across the page with a sharpie. When you get to the hand on your page, slightly curve the line, then continue straight across once you've reached the other side of the hand. This project takes some patience and diligence, but that makes it that much better of an assignment.

 

8. Paint Swirl Coasters

I have to confess that I had just as much fun making these as the kids did. We had some left over white tiles from a craft project, and I couldn't wait to try this cool sharpie art.

Materials

• Ceramic tiles
• Sharpie
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Q-Tips

All you do is scribble across the tile in a variety of colors. Then you dip your q-tip into the rubbing alcohol and drip it over your tile. It is so fun to watch the colors swirl around in various blends. Finish it with spray sealer, and hot glue some felt to the bottom and you have a beautiful coaster that would make a great gift!

9. Balloon Pumpkin Pop Art

I saw this idea of painting with balloons and I had to try it out. We mashed it up with this pumpkin pop art idea, and I think the results turned out pretty fun.

Materials Needed:

• Small balloons
• Orange & Yellow Acrylic Paint
• Black Sharpie
• Water colors

First we stamped our pumpkins in the center of our paper. We had to wait a bit to let the paint dry before we moved on to the next step, so we blew up some more balloons and had a balloon party!

Then we took a sharpie and outlined our pumpkin. The sharpie doesn't work across the paint, so we didn't add the vertical lines, but you could do that with a little black acrylic paint. We also drew lines out from our pumpkin to divide the paper into sections. In each of those sections we made an interesting pattern.

Then we water colored each section a different color. I think our fun fall pumpkin pop art turned out great!

10. Leaf Paint Chip Mosaics

Honestly, I love anything that involves paint chips. This paint chip mosaic project looked so fun that I wanted to incorporate a fall shape into the fun. You don't have to make in into a leaf shape, but it sure did turn out fun!

I picked fall colors out of the paint chip section, and went to town cutting out various shapes.

We water colored around the outside of our leaf mosaic and it turned out beautiful!

When we'd finished our week of abstract art projects, I mounted them on black construction paper and featured them on our gallery wall. It's important to showcase their work to celebrate their achievements.

What is your favorite abstract art project?

If you love these ideas, please share on Pinterest or Facebook!

 

Looking for more art ideas? Try some of these:

• Drawing Books
• Color Blending
• Contour Drawing
• Origami
• Chalk Art

This is the end of my 31 Days of Hands-On Learning Stations series. If you'd like to get more hands-on learning inspiration, click the image below!