Our universe is made up of billions of galaxies. Each one is a collections of stars, dust, gas and dark matter, and found in either elliptical, spiral, or irregular shapes. Images of galaxies can be truly breathtaking and mysterious, and will easily inspire children when making their own version. They’ll be painting, sponging, splattering, and using a glass bead textured gel medium to create a cool effect.
Materials
- stretched canvas or canvas board
- acrylic paint
- sponges
- paint brushes
- toothbrush
- acrylic glass bead medium
Instructions
1. Spend some time looking at images of galaxies on the internet (see below) or in books. Think about specific elements you would like to include in your painting. Ideal paint colours to use include white, black, yellow, and one or two blues. Of course any colours can be included, based on a child’s preference.
2. Use a wide brush to fill the canvas with blue paint, as well as some smaller sections of white and black. Now use sponges to blend these colours together and create depth, texture, and elliptical or spiral shapes, if you have chosen to include them.
3. After looking at images of galaxies, children will notice stars don’t really show up with five points like they may have been accustomed to drawing. Instead, they look like a fine mist of dots, which can easily be achieved with a toothbrush. Mix some yellow paint with a small amount of water. Load a toothbrush with some of the paint, and run your thumb along it to release a fine spray of dots. It’s best to practice this on some newspaper first, so children get the hang of it. If children are unhappy with any of the shapes or blobs that land on their work, they can easily cover them up by dabbing a sponge on top with another colour like blue.
4. After some neat sponging, and some fun toothbrush splattering comes the very cool acrylic glass bead texture gel. This is simply one of many different types of mediums which can alter acrylic paint, and creating a variety of effects. They can easily be found in art supply stores. Once the paint has dried, use a paint brush and/or sponge to apply some acrylic glass bead medium on top. You can cover the entire painting, or just a few sections. The medium will appear opaque upon application, but will dry clear and glossy, leaving an interesting beaded texture.
Some interesting sites about galaxies:
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/photos/galaxies-gallery/
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/galaxys.htm
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/AskKids/galaxies.shtml
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy
Supplies.
Background colours.
Yellow stars added with toothbrush.
Acrylic texture gel sponged on.
Closeup of acrylic glass bead texture gel.
ArtClubBlog 
Love the creativity of your blog, thanks for coming on mine I am now a follower
Thanks so much for your kind words. So glad you dropped by 🙂
Loved this post. Very helpful, easy and a creative way to paint! Many thanks!!!
Glad you liked it 🙂
What a great idea and beautiful result — I want to try this with my kids. Thank you for sharing and thank you for stopping by and checking out Travel Oops! Cheers, Steph
Thanks Steph. Really enjoy your blog, which has so many great and hilarious stories about traveling. Thanks for dropping by!
This is by far one of my favourite tutorials! Just a quick question, for the yellow stars did you just use the very tip of a toothbrush?
So glad you liked it! For the stars, I applied paint to the toothbrush, and ran my thumb along the entire length of the bristles. Practicing on paper first can be really helpful. Have fun!
I am currently painting a physics classroom and will be using this technique. Can’t want to see the result 🙂
I’m sure it will be fabulous! Would love to see photos if you have a site where you’re posting them.
I only wanted to write and say that this is an awesome tutorial! I will be painting this as a gift for my husband, for our 2nd wedding anniversary 🙂
Thanks, you’re so kind! I’m sure your husband will love your gift 🙂
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Had to come over and look at this as I missed this post and was curious. That is some awesome stuff! Better look for that too!
Glad you did!
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this is beautiful the first one is my favorite