We have been playing around with making our own wrapping paper this year. It’s been fun to try to personalise the paper to go with the theme of the party, if we know it, or for the kids to just go wild with big, bright designs. For Christmas, of course, we need quite a lot more paper than what we’ve been making for one-off birthday parties, so we decided to go big. And, who did big and bold better than Jackson Pollock?
It’s an art history lesson and wrapping paper all-in-one with Jackson Pollock inspired action painting wrapping paper!
Learning About Pollock’s Technique
We started by watching this video of Jackson Pollock painting.
Note that, as much as my kids just wanted to glob some paint on and start flailing their brushes with wild abandon, we could see that there’s a lot more to his technique than that. He moves around the canvas, constantly. He drips. He pours. He uses intricate arm motions to make marks much more like thought-out shapes than random splodges. He never, ever touches is brush to the canvas. It’s far more than just splatters.
(The 7 year old could understand all of these finer details. The 3 year old, much less so. For her, I focused on the direction of never touching her brush to the paper.)
Set Up & Materials
You Will Need:
- Tarp
- Roll of craft paper
- Rocks or other weights (they will get paint on them)
- Paints
- A variety of brushes
- Tubs or other containers
- Water
I started by laying out a large tarp. Make sure that you have a perimeter of tarp around your paper, as you will be moving around it a lot, and the paint will travel. Roll out long strips of craft paper (IKEA, KMart, etc.). Weight down the edges with something that can get messy.
Choose your paint colors. We went Christmas traditional with red and green, adding a gold (I think one metallic adds a bit of fancy to whichever colors you choose).
To prepare the paint, I mixed it in plastic containers, using about 1 part water to 3 parts paint (more water for the thicker acrylic paint), and mixing it well. It should be fairly runny.
I put out an assortment of brushes so that we could see the effects of the different sizes.
Then, the Pollock party begins!
Painting Process
It was so much fun playing around with what we’d learned about Jackson Pollock’s process.
We had to remember to keep moving, and to drip more than splatter. An attempt at pouring made a bigger blob than intended, which was a learning experience, and certainly there’s no wrong here! The deliberate arm movements were trickier than they look, which was interesting to discover.
And, yes, there was plenty of “splattering,” too! (Of everything…)
We left the paper out to dry overnight. If you’ll be doing this in a yard or uncovered area, make sure there is no rain in the overnight forecast, as you really won’t want to move these large strips for several hours.
Once the paint is completely dry, all you need is some gifts. That’s a wrap!
No Time to Paint Right Now?
PIN IT FOR LATER!
