May Day Art

May is upon us and we have so many things to celebrate: Mother’s Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, a few special birthdays  (my son, my sister, my friend April, … 😉 ) and of course, one of my favorites: MAY DAY! 

When I was a little girl, I can remember going early before school started and dropping flowers at my teacher’s doorstep.  I never did question how my mom knew their address. She was a substitute in the district and later became a fulltime teacher, so I guess she had some “hook-ups” as to the teachers’ address?!  She was clever, that Kathy Monroe!

This year is an unusual year with isolation and all.  So, I thought I would help to bring the flowers to you with another “Art With Kids” painting project.  A few weeks ago, I posted a video on how to paint flowers.  It was the second part of the 2-part Auction Art demo.  I promised printouts for the rest of the flowers, so here you go!  They are posted at the end of this article.  Paint up a few of these beauties and make something out of them! 

What to Do With My Art

There are SOOOOO MANY things you could use this art for:

1. May Day: Glue it to a card and leave it on someone’s doorstep for May Day (May 1st!).
2. Window Display: Make a series of them and tape it to your front window for all the #covidwalkers to see and enjoy!
3. Teacher Appreciation Week: Glue it to a card and give it to your teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week which is coming up: May 4 – 8th.  Don’t know where he/she lives?  Take a picture and post it to them on Seesaw, Email or however you communicate with them right now.
4. Mother’s Day: Glue it to a card or even FRAME IT and send it in the mail to someone for Mother’s Day (It’s just around the corner on May 10th).

Painting May Day Flowers

Supplies:

• Print out of flower(s) (save my prints at the end of this post to your desktop and print to cardstock)
• Acrylic paints (watercolor would work too, the technique will just be different)
• Paint brush(s)
• Paint palette (or piece of cardboard, paper plate, or…anything flat)
• Scissors
• Green construction paper (or white, with green pen or paint)
• Sharpie (optional)

I am supplying you with 3 types of flowers: poppies, pansies and irises.  For the poppy, I painted two different color variations: hot pink and red.  Here are the steps to take for each:

Poppies

I love the poppies.  They are my favorite in this series (Peonies are my favorite flower…but poppies are right up there).  So delicate yet complex.  I will start with the easiest, the hot pink:

A Hot Pink Poppy

1. Paint all the petals hot pink (or the darkest pink you have).
2. Paint “highlights” with the light pink (or mix white with your darkest pink to get a contrasting pink).
3. Paint center brown and let dry. (Advanced: you may also use this color to add some low lights or shadows to your petals too).
4. Paint yellow dots or dashes over the brown to represent the “fuzzy” pollen center.

A Red Poppy

1. Paint the petals dark red.
2. Paint the “highlights” with a light red (or add white to your first red).
3. Paint the center brown and let dry.
4. Dab your brush so the wet bristles stick together. Dip the tips of the paintbrush in yellow paint and dab around the edge of the brown center, making dots along the edge of the center circle, creating a ring of yellow speckles.
5. In center, paint a dark oval (either navy, black, darker brown, something with contrast) and let dry.
6. Using the dry brush technique from step 4, dab a few dots over the dark center oval.

The Pansy

1. Paint the whole thing dark green.
2. Paint brush strokes, creating highlights from the center out with a lighter green (or dark green with white added to make that lighter green).
3. With light brown, paint a 5-point star in the center.
4. With dark brown, dab little dots around the edge or border of that 5-point star.
5. Add navy/Black speckles, white speckles and a gold center.

The Iris

1. Paint the background lavender.
2. Paint the inside of the petals in light lavender (mix white with lavender to get a contrasting color).
3. Paint 4 light blue circles on the center of the petals.
4. Outline the light blue circle with a line of dark blue.
5. Add a dot of dark brown/burnt brown to the bottom of the circles closest to the center.
6. Add lavender dashes on the top of the circles (kind of like eyelashes for the circles).
7. Lastly, add dark lines like a plus in the center of the iris, showing the separating of the petals.

Once you have painted your flower(s), you can add a stem!  Cut out your flower, add stem and glue it to a card, or just a piece of cardstock.  Voila!  Your art is now ready to gift it to someone special!!!

What NOT to Do

Rules: there are no rules!  These steps are just basic guidelines to help you.  Once you have the basics, you are free to do whatever you wish!!!  This is art.  Go WILD and create something that expresses YOU!!!

One thing I DO want you to do is after you’ve completed your art, SEND ME PICTURES!!!  I want to see your beautiful creations!!!  melissa@mkmdesigns.biz or post them on your Facebook page or Instagram and tag me.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing that I have inspired someone to be creative!

Happy May Day, y’all!

Xo, Melis

#artwithkids #artwithmkm #maydayart #isolationcreation

Printouts: