As a big fan of Kandinsky’s concentric circle art, I knew we needed a Valentine version that was Kandinsky-inspired. Concentric heart art was born back in 2018 and has been on repeat every February since!
Concentric heart art is STUNNING every time
Some of my favorite art projects are the ones we come up with on a whim and in the moment, like this one!
My brain works in a way where I can see art supplies, and in a matter of seconds, I can think of 12 different projects to do with them. What I lack in understanding of geography, I make up for in the ability to come up with art projects on the spot.
Thousands of teachers and kids have now done these sweet art projects, and I will never stop loving them. One of my Instagram friends Katie Allain @mrsallainart has done this project every year since we’ve shared and I am THRILLED to feature many photos from her artists in this post!
Related: Our Valentine’s Day coloring pages are also perfect for your little artists. 💕
Kids of all ages love concentric heart art
From our little preschoolers to bigger elementary school kids, the ease of this project makes it successful for little kids, and its simplicity makes it open-ended for big kids, too!
And since there is no such thing as “too many hearts,” kids often return to this project during the year, too. It’s just the sweetest thing.
Looking for more Valentine’s Day art activities? Give these a try!
- Shaving Cream Marbles Hearts – Busy Toddler
- Fingerprint Heart Card – The Best Ideas for Kids
- Street Art Hearts – Cassie Stephens
Materials
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There are many ways to do this project, including what we’ll call “regular” and “neon.”
Regular supplies:
- Oil pastels (sometimes we use chunky ones, other times we use regular ones – both are perfect)
- Watercolors (pan watercolors and liquid watercolors each work great!)
- Watercolor paper (or the thickest paper you have)
Neon supplies:
- Neon oil pastels
- Black light
- Watercolor paper (or the thickest paper you have)
Directions
Whenever I do this activity, I always model the steps first and walk through them once from beginning to end. While I don’t do this for every project we do, it’s conducive to concentric heart art!
Begin by drawing a small heart in the center of your paper. Next, say something like, “Next, I am going to draw another heart, and this time it’s going to be a little bigger and go around the first one.” As you narrate, draw a second heart around the first one.
Continue, narrating along the lines of, “Now I have two hearts, and I am going to make another heart! This next heart will be a little bigger and also go around the big heart.”
Repeat until you have concentric hearts (the fancy way of saying hearts around hearts).
Once your drawing is complete, paint it over with watercolors.
Ta-da! A gorgeous masterpiece every time!
How to make neon concentric heart art
Follow the same steps above, using the neon oil pastels versus the regular ones.
The neon oil pastels and watercolors are both beautiful and impressive on their own, but to kick it up a notch, turn on the black light while/after they create for extra pops of neon color and fun!
How is this a math activity, too?
We love when art and math intersect, and this is a perfect demonstration of such!
- Shapes: When doing this activity, kids hear the word “heart” said many times. Hearts are geometric shapes, and this is a fantastic opportunity to work on shape vocabulary.
- Spatial awareness: Working on drawing hearts that go around one another with space in between is a great skill! Kids use spatial awareness to make each heart a little larger than the last and avoid making hearts overlap.
- Prepositions: When drawing, they use their positional words to see and describe where they’re drawing. You might hear terms like around, inside of, outside of, next to, and so on – all prepositions!
FAQ
Our preschoolers ages 2.5-6 love this project, and I see it done with all elementary grades every year, too.
Oil pastels work the best, but crayons can work, too!
I describe them as something between a crayon and a lipstick. They’re smoother than a crayon and very colorful.
Concentric heart art is where it’s at!
People sharing their concentric heart art with us every year is one of my FAVORITE parts of February.
Kids of all ages (and adults!) can be wildly successful with this project, and each piece is always a frame-worthy piece of art.
For more heart art, these easy valentine doily hearts are beautiful, too.
We cannot wait to see yours. Have fun!
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