Top 13 'Little-Picasso' Art Styles to try with kids for Recreating Famous Masterpieces at Home
Ever stared at a blank piece of paper with your child, felt a flicker of creative panic, and ended up drawing the same smiley-faced sun for the hundredth time? We’ve all been there. Inspiring our kids to create can sometimes feel like a bigger challenge than the art project itself. We want to move beyond basic handprint turkeys and introduce them to the vast, wonderful world of art, but where do we even begin?
What if I told you that you could explore the genius of Van Gogh, the boldness of Picasso, and the dreaminess of Dalí right at your kitchen table, using little more than potatoes, paper scraps, and a whole lot of imagination? The secret isn't about creating a perfect replica. It's about borrowing the style of the masters and letting your little one run wild. This approach transforms art history from a stuffy museum tour into a hands-on, paint-splattered adventure.
Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we believe that the process is always more important than the product, especially when it comes to kids' art. So, grab your smocks and get ready to unleash your "Little Picasso." We've compiled 13 wonderfully kid-friendly art styles to help you and your children recreate famous masterpieces in a way that’s all about fun, learning, and making a glorious, creative mess.
1. Potato Print Pointillism
Pointillism is the mesmerising art of creating a large image from thousands of tiny dots of color. While Georges Seurat spent two years meticulously dotting his masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, your little artist can get a similar effect in under an hour with a humble potato!
Simply cut a potato in half, carve a simple shape if you like (or just use the round surface), dip it in paint, and start dotting! This technique is fantastic for developing fine motor skills and teaching kids how colors blend when placed side-by-side. The repetitive motion is calming, and the big reveal of the final image is always magical.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte or Paul Signac's harbor scenes.
- Pro Tip: Use different sizes of potatoes or even the end of a carrot for dot variations. For finer dots, cotton swabs are a perfect tool for tiny fingers.
2. Collage Cubism
Pablo Picasso broke all the rules by showing objects from multiple viewpoints at once, fracturing them into geometric shapes. This might sound complex, but it's the perfect concept for a collage! Cubism is all about seeing the world differently, and what better way to do that than with scissors and glue?
Arm your child with old magazines, colored construction paper, and safety scissors. Ask them to create a portrait or a simple object, like a guitar, by cutting out different shapes for each feature—an eye from one angle, a nose from another, a mouth from the front. The result is a wonderfully wacky and deeply personal piece that perfectly captures the spirit of Picasso.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman or any of his portraits.
- Pro Tip: Don't aim for realism. Encourage your child to use a triangle for a nose or a square for a cheek. The more abstract, the more Cubist!
3. Finger Paint Impressionism
The Impressionists, like Claude Monet, were obsessed with capturing the fleeting effects of light and movement. Their paintings are famous for their blurry, dreamy quality and visible brushstrokes. What looks like a visible brushstroke for Monet can be a perfect fingerprint for your child!
Finger painting is the ultimate sensory experience and a brilliant way to mimic the dabbing, smudging technique of the Impressionists. Let your child dip their fingers in different colors and dab them onto the paper to build up a scene. They’ll learn how to blend colors directly on the canvas and see how a series of simple dabs can create a rich, textured image.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Claude Monet's Water Lilies or Impression, Sunrise.
- Pro Tip: Give your child a limited palette of blues, greens, whites, and a touch of pink to create a beautiful, cohesive water lily pond without it turning into a brown mess.
4. Splatter Paint Abstract Expressionism
Ready to get messy? Abstract Expressionism is all about action and emotion. Jackson Pollock, the master of this style, became famous for his "drip" paintings, where he dripped, splattered, and poured paint onto giant canvases. This is an activity that’s guaranteed to get your kids excited.
Take this project outside! Lay down a large sheet of paper, a drop cloth, or an old bedsheet. Give your child various paint colors in cups and different tools—brushes, sticks, spoons—to drip and splatter the paint. It’s a fantastic way for kids to express their energy and emotions physically, creating a piece that is dynamic and completely unique.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Any of Jackson Pollock's "drip" paintings.
- Pro Tip: Use watered-down tempera or acrylic paint for the best splatter effect. Play some energetic music in the background to inspire movement!
5. Magazine Cut-Out Surrealism
Surrealism unlocks the world of dreams and the subconscious. Artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte painted bizarre, illogical scenes with photographic precision. You can tap into this weird and wonderful world by creating "dreamscapes" with magazine cut-outs.
Flip through old magazines and have your child cut out anything that catches their eye: a person, a teacup, an animal, a car, a clock. Then, on a fresh piece of paper, have them arrange these cut-outs in strange and surprising combinations. A fish flying through the sky? A cat wearing a hat made of flowers? In Surrealism, anything is possible!
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory (think melting clocks) or René Magritte's The Son of Man.
- Pro Tip: Encourage storytelling. Ask your child, "What's happening in this strange world you've created?" It’s a fantastic way to spark imagination and narrative skills.
6. Stencil & Stamp Pop Art
Pop Art celebrated the bright, bold, and commercial. Andy Warhol took everyday objects like soup cans and turned them into high art through repetition and vibrant color. This style is incredibly fun and easy for kids to replicate with simple stencils or stamps.
Help your child create a simple stencil of an object they love—a banana, a star, their favorite animal. Then, have them trace and paint the shape multiple times on one page, using a different, outrageously bright color for each one. This teaches kids about pattern, repetition, and the power of color.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans or Marilyn Diptych.
- Pro Tip: You can also use stamps (store-bought or carved from potatoes) to create the repeating patterns. The key is to use flat, un-blended, and unexpected colors.
7. Wild Color Fauvism
"Fauvism" literally translates to "wild beasts," which is a perfect description for this style's approach to color! Artists like Henri Matisse used intense, non-realistic colors to express emotion. A tree didn't have to be green and brown; it could be orange and purple if that’s how the artist felt.
This is a liberating activity for kids who are often told to color within the lines and use "correct" colors. Give them a box of oil pastels or crayons and ask them to draw a family portrait or their pet, but with a twist: they have to use their "wrongest" color choices. A blue dog, a green face, a pink sky—it’s all about feeling and fun, not reality.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Henri Matisse's Woman with a Hat or André Derain's colorful landscapes.
- Pro Tip: Oil pastels are fantastic for this because their rich, creamy texture allows for bold, thick strokes of color that can be layered and smudged.
8. Textured Paint Expressionism
While Fauvism used color to show emotion, Expressionism used texture and distorted forms. Edvard Munch’s The Scream isn't just a painting of a person screaming; it's a painting that feels like a scream, with its swirling, agitated lines.
Give your child some thick paint (add a little flour or cornstarch to tempera to thicken it) and a variety of unconventional tools: a plastic fork, a comb, a sponge, a crumpled piece of foil. Show them how they can scrape, press, and drag these tools through the paint to create textures that show different feelings—angry scratches, sad droops, or happy swirls.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Edvard Munch's The Scream.
- Pro Tip: Using a fork is the perfect way to mimic the swirling, tormented sky and bridge in The Scream. This is a great way to talk about how art can help us express feelings we don't have words for.
9. Glitter & Glue Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is all about elegant, decorative, and flowing lines inspired by nature. Gustav Klimt is one of its most famous artists, known for his ornate, shimmering paintings often incorporating gold leaf. You can get that same dazzling effect with a bottle of school glue and some glitter!
On a dark piece of paper, have your child draw a simple portrait or pattern using a bottle of white glue. Then, before it dries, let them sprinkle gold, silver, or bronze glitter all over it. Once you shake off the excess, a beautiful, shimmering, and textured line drawing is revealed. It's a process that feels utterly magical.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Gustav Klimt's The Kiss or Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
- Pro Tip: Focus on creating patterns. Instead of drawing a plain dress on a person, fill it with swirls, circles, and squares using the glue, just like Klimt did.
10. Construction Paper Minimalism (De Stijl)
Sometimes, the simplest things are the most beautiful. Piet Mondrian, a leader of the De Stijl movement, created masterpieces using only straight black lines and blocks of primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). This minimalist style is a fantastic introduction to composition and balance for kids.
This is a no-paint, low-mess activity! All you need is a white piece of paper, black construction paper cut into strips, and red, yellow, and blue paper cut into squares and rectangles. Let your child arrange the black "lines" to create a grid, then fill in some of the spaces with the primary colors. It’s like a puzzle with infinite solutions.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow.
- Pro Tip: Use a ruler to help your child place the black strips straight for a truly Mondrian-esque look. Talk about how placing a small red square in a certain spot can change the whole feeling of the artwork.
11. Fork-Painted Starry Night Swirls
Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night is one of the most beloved paintings in the world, famous for its thick, swirling brushstrokes that make the sky feel alive. Recreating that iconic texture is surprisingly easy with a simple kitchen utensil: a fork!
Squeeze dollops of dark blue, light blue, white, and yellow paint onto a plate. Show your child how to dip the tines of a plastic fork into the paint and press it onto the paper in a swirling C-shape motion. They can layer colors to create the swirling sky, then add yellow dots for stars. It’s a wonderfully tactile way to connect with Van Gogh’s passionate style.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night.
- Pro Tip: Don’t over-mix the colors on the plate. The magic happens when the fork picks up a little of each color and blends them directly on the paper, creating dynamic, textured strokes.
12. Mixed Media Renaissance Portraits
The Mona Lisa’s fame comes from her mysterious smile and the incredible realism Leonardo da Vinci achieved. While we can’t all be da Vinci, we can borrow the classic portrait format of the Renaissance and give it a fun, modern twist with mixed media.
Have your child draw their own self-portrait or a portrait of a family member. Then, instead of just coloring it, raid your craft bin! Use scraps of fabric for clothing, yarn for hair, and bits of patterned paper for the background. This combines drawing with collage and teaches kids about texture, layering, and character.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
- Pro Tip: Before they start, talk about expressions. Can they draw a small, secret smile like Mona Lisa's? What about a happy, wide grin? This connects the art to emotion.
13. Styrofoam Ukiyo-e Printmaking
Introduce your child to the art of printmaking with a kid-safe version of Japanese Ukiyo-e, or "woodblock prints." Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a stunning example of this style, known for its bold outlines and flat areas of color.
Instead of a woodblock, use a styrofoam plate or tray. Have your child "carve" a design into the styrofoam using a dull pencil or a popsicle stick (don't press all the way through!). Then, use a roller or a sponge brush to apply a thin layer of paint over the entire surface. Press a piece of paper firmly onto the plate, peel it back, and reveal your print! They can make multiple copies, just like real printmakers.
- Masterpiece to Recreate: Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
- Pro Tip: Remind your child that their image will be printed in reverse. For the "Great Wave," focus on carving the swirly lines of the water and the shape of Mount Fuji in the background.
Remember, the goal of these activities isn't to create a museum-quality forgery. It's to open a door. It's about showing your kids that art is a giant, exciting playground with countless ways to play. Each of these styles gives them a new "rule" to follow or, even better, to break. It’s a core philosophy that we, inspired by creators like Goh Ling Yong, champion wholeheartedly: give children the tools and the freedom, and they will create wonders.
So, the next time you have a free afternoon, pick a style from this list, put on some music, and get creating. You’ll be making more than just a picture—you’ll be making memories and nurturing a lifelong love of art.
Which style are you most excited to try with your Little Picasso? Let us know in the comments below, and don't forget to share their amazing masterpieces with us on social media
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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