This post from Shelly introduces the echo art technique - a simple but really effective technique that you can adapt so that children of all ages can enjoy.
Someone recently asked us if we had ever done any echo art. It peaked my interest so I had a quick search to find out more. As I read about echo art my immediate thought was this would be fun to do with underwater creatures. So we gave it a try.
My son started with a shark template. He is fascinated by sharks so it was an easy choice. First he traced around the template.
Tracing around the shark template
Then he started drawing the echo lines around the shark. This just means he would try and copy the outline of the shark. With his first attempt he ended up making the lines a little bit too curvy and we felt like it lost the shape of the shark.
His first shark drawing with wavy lines
So he had another go and this time he tried to keep the sharper lines of the sharks fins, which I think he managed quite well.
A second attempt with sharper lines
We then decided that if he coloured his shark in a cool colour it might be interesting to do the echo lines in warm colours (just for a contrast).
Colouring in his echo shark drawing
His finished shark echo art drawing
My son really liked the end result. He said it looked like lightening bolts coming from the shark.
We tried a second underwater creature: a fish.
His finished fish
Then I thought it might be good to try a completely different creature, so we had a go at a butterfly. This time we did not stick to a repeating pattern for the echo rings. Instead we just coloured the echo rings in a bunch of different colours. When we try something new I always like trying a few different versions to see if there is one that we prefer but I actually like both examples: the first where you repeat a colour pattern in the echo rings and the second where you just use different colours.
His echo art drawing of a butterfly
We were in a bit of an echo art mood so we tried it again - but this time instead of colouring in the echo lines we just drew them in alternating colours. Instead of just one image we drew in four different swallows and then drew the echo lines around each swallow.
Drawing lines around 4 swallows
I like the idea of using multiple images but if you do, you need to make sure the echo lines don’t overlap. They need to “merge” together.
4 swallows completed
We both enjoyed the idea of having multiple images and then merging the lines together so we tried a slightly different version - two cats together - but this time the echo lines actually end up becoming one big combined echo line!
His echo line art drawing of two cats!
It was a lot of fun trying something different and creating different versions, but my son still thinks his lightening shark is the best.
Thanks to Shelly and her son for these fabulour echo art animal ideas. Head on over to our templates collection and choose some of your own to try!
Shelly is a home educating parent of two children aged 10 and 12. She blogs at ofamily learning together where she shares ideas on the different learning activities that they do including lots of hand-on maths, arts and crafts and anything else that is part of their home educating lifestyle.
