Reprinted with permission from crafts-for-all-seasons.com, http://www.cra fts-for-all-seasons.com/Halloween-art-project.html

This Halloween art project is great for school kids or adults! The background resembles a sunset and it is very easily created. Making the sunset gives you a chance to practice blending colors of paint. Then, using black paint, a scary scene is painted on the sunset. This is where students can really use their imagination. It gives them practice drawing the outlines of shapes and choosing what elements to add to the scene. Here I show how to make a tree, haunted house and a tombstone. Try making bats, witches, cemeteries, fences, jack-o-lanterns, etc., to create your own spooky scene!

What You’ll Need to Make This Halloween Art Project:

• Large piece of painting paper

• Large and small paintbrush (large is for the sunset, the small one is for making the scene)

• Red paint (acrylic, tempera, or watercolors all work well)

• Orange paint (acrylic, tempera, or watercolors all work well)

• Yellow paint (acrylic, tempera, or watercolors all work well)

• Black paint (acrylic or tempera recommended)

• Water

Making the sunset background is actually very easy. My 4-year-old did quite well with a little help.

• Begin with a nice large paintbrush, like the type you would use to paint trim in your house. Load it up well with red paint and then paint a wide strip along the top of the paper as shown.

• Right below the red strip, paint a wide orange strip. You can slightly overlap the colors.

• Last, paint a wide yellow strip at the bottom. The paper should now be all covered.

• Clean off the brush well with water, and leave the brush a little wet. Go back over and swipe the brush across where the two colors meet, to help them blend.

• Allow this paper to dry very well, preferably overnight.

• Now it is time for your imagination. Turn the paper upside down so the red area is at the bottom. Using the black paint, paint a wavy line about one inch from the bottom of the paper in the red stripe area, and fill it in. This is the ground of your Halloween scene.

• Paint whatever figures and objects you can think of.

• Making a tree is very easy. Begin by making a tree trunk and two branches, which will look like a “Y.” Continue to add branches to the two shown by branching smaller ones out from it, and then smaller ones from those. Use the photos as guides.

Need more ideas? Try making a bunch of jack-o-lanterns piled up, a black cat on a fence, a spooky cemetery scene or a witch on a broom with bats flying around her. Have fun and use your imagination!