Childhood101

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Kids Art: 5 Ways With Body Outlines

5 Ways to Create on Body Outlines

Young children often love it when you trace around their body and here are five suggestions for getting the most out of this fun, creative experience (and these ideas aren’t just limited to little ones, the big ones will enjoy these too!)

Drawing: Because of the large surface area of body outlines, it is a good idea to think carefully about what type of drawing utensils will make drawing and colouring quick and easy (especially for young children). Felt tipped markers, crayons or oil pastels will take less time than pencils.  It can also be fun to add a paint wash over crayons or oil pastels for a colourful crayon resist effect.

kids art body outlines

Painting: Painting is probably the quickest way to decorate a body outline. Try tracing everyone in the family or your child in a range of different  body positions to make a family of ‘people’ to decorate your wall.

kids art body outlines

Fabric collage: Use up scraps of fabric by creating clothes on your body outline. We used diluted child-friendly PVA glue to keep ours in place. If you don’t have fabric scraps, try tissue paper or construction paper scraps instead.

kids art body outlines

Magazine collage: Bigger kids can use magazine pictures to create a collage effect on their body outline.

kids art body outlines

Go abstract: Of course, you don’t have to outline the entire body. Tracing smaller body parts means children have less area to fill which opens you to a greater range of creative techniques. Why not go retro with some brightly coloured colour blocking! Using oil pastels, Immy and I took one hand and arm each and I love the results.

You’ll find further inspiration for getting creative with kids in my newly released book, Time to Create, check it out…

Time_to_Create_by Christie Burnett



Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  2. wordplayhouse® says

    November 2, 2011 at 5:14 AM

    For a time, we had rolls of giant body tracings decorated in various ways after reading a children's book where the class in the story makes them. So much fun was had making and decorating these tracing in our home, just as the child you have shown creating here. This really is a fun project for children you've shared with your readers.

  5. kelli-AdventurezInChildRearing says

    November 4, 2011 at 12:26 PM

    love the hands and arms- we do "virtual vacations" and this is a great way to study the henna art and tribal body paint without actually painting on the kiddos! (unless I find just the right totally non-toxic stuff- then they might actually prefer to paint themselves!)

  6. Jessica says

    November 5, 2011 at 4:38 AM

    I started a local Children's Art Group and this is one of the things i've had on my "to do" list for awhile now. This gives me some GREAT ideas to use when we do this! Thank you!!! http://www.playcreateexplore.com/p/childrens-art-group.html

  9. Nirvana Watkins says

    March 15, 2014 at 4:29 AM

    At playgroup, we did a "what's inside?" drawing activity with body outlines. I followed this us at home by using the animated Human Body by Tinybop app with my son :)

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