Lansdowne Life

Stimulating high contrast paintings for baby

by Erin Heaton

 

We’re still getting ready for baby around here! I put together this simple “sibling activity” to get Elise more excited about baby sister and their shared room. Plus, she’s always up for any crafty project I can throw at her.
There’s a lot of research out there that suggest babies prefer to look at black and white geometric patterns and high contrast images. We decided to make some of our own to hang up near the baby’s changing table to give her something interesting to look at during diaper changes.

 

 

I bought some small 6″x8″ canvas boards at Michaels for a few bucks. We covered them in office supply dot stickers and painters tape, creating different geometric patterns.

 

 

Then Elise painted the entire canvases in black. I didn’t care that the coat of paint was uneven. Actually, I think it gives it some extra interest. But if it bothers you, a second coat of paint will take care of it.

 

 

Before the paint dried completely, I carefully peeled off the stickers/tape revealing the white below. The edges of the stickers came out a more raggedy than the tape due to the texture of the canvas, but that’s OK. Handmade!

 

 

For the polka dot and striped paintings, that’s all we did. Easy peasy.

The diamond pattern was a bit more complicated. Initially, I thought it would only take a couple of layers, but I took over and ended up doing multiple multiple layers of tape and paint. Honestly, I stopped taking progress photos, and I’m not sure it would be worth explaining in detail. Sorry. If anyone is super interested, leave a comment and I will write up an explanation. See below for a photo explanation of how I did it!

p.s. Of course, Elise had to take some project photos with her own camera. My little blogger without a blog.

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Update 03/25/2013: Baby Etta is fascinated by the paintings! Even at only two days old!

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Added 02/24/2013:

A brief explanation of how to complete the diamond pattern, in photos.







[I don’t have a photo of this, but paint the exposed gray diamonds in black, then peel off the tape.]

Comments

  1. yurra-bazain says

    I love this idea! 🙂 This project is definitely something I would like to explore with my daughter sometime. We have a blank canvas of an apartment to fill. =D Thank you for sharing!

  2. Anonymous says

    Hi Erin . Im an Art student and Im working on an exam about contrast . Im really interested in your diamond pattern painting . Can you explain for me how you did that cause is will help me so much in my supporting work .

    http://www.facebook.com/bearduc

    • Anonymous says

      Thanks Erin . Im rreally appriciate your help. I will experience with your techniques and i will try to upload those picture . thanks for your support . 🙂