Top 14 'Era-Hopping' Art Styles to make with kids for a time-traveling art history lesson - Goh Ling Yong
Ready to embark on an adventure that's part history lesson, part messy art class, and all parts fun? Forget dusty textbooks and sleepy museum tours. We're about to turn your kitchen table into a time machine, fueled by paint, paper, and a whole lot of imagination. This isn't just about making crafts; it's about era-hopping.
The idea is simple: to understand art history, we need to do art history. By recreating iconic styles with our kids, we give them a tangible connection to the past. They can feel the bold dabs of the Impressionists, piece together the geometric puzzles of the Cubists, and get their hands dirty just like the first cave painters. It’s an immersive learning experience that builds creativity, fine motor skills, and a genuine appreciation for the great artists who came before us.
So, clear some space, grab your smocks, and prepare to jump through the centuries. We’ve curated 14 era-hopping art projects that will take you and your little artists on a thrilling journey from the Stone Age to the modern day. Let's make some history!
1. Prehistoric Cave Painting (c. 40,000 BCE)
Long before there were canvases or classrooms, the very first artists were creating masterpieces on the walls of dark caves. Using natural pigments made from minerals and charcoal, they painted images of animals, hunts, and handprints. This was humanity’s first-ever art gallery, telling the stories of their daily lives and beliefs.
To recreate this ancient magic, ditch the pristine white paper. Instead, crumple up a large sheet of brown packing paper or a paper grocery bag and then smooth it out again. This creates a wonderfully rugged, rock-like texture. For paints, stick to an earthy palette: browns, reds, oranges, and blacks. Kids can use their fingers, sticks, or chunky brushes to paint simple animal shapes like bison, horses, and deer. A classic technique is to place a hand on the paper and use a spray bottle with watered-down paint to spray around it, creating a "hand stencil" just like our ancestors did.
Pro-Tip: For an authentic touch, mix a little sand or dirt into your brown paint to give it a gritty, textured feel. It’s messy, but the sensory experience is unforgettable!
2. Ancient Egyptian Art (c. 3100 BCE)
Jump forward to the land of pharaohs and pyramids! Ancient Egyptian art was all about order, gods, and the afterlife. It followed very strict rules, which is why the figures often look stiff and stylized. They famously used a "composite view," showing the head, arms, and legs in profile, but the torso and eye facing forward. This was their way of showing the body as clearly as possible.
Create your own Egyptian scroll using a long strip of paper (taped-together A4 sheets work great) or a brown paper bag cut open. Have your kids draw figures of pharaohs, queens, or Egyptian gods like Anubis or Horus. Encourage them to try the composite view—it’s a fun challenge! They can also practice writing their names in hieroglyphics. Use gold paint or metallic markers to add a touch of royal flair to headdresses and jewelry.
Pro-Tip: Before you start, look up a hieroglyphic alphabet online. It’s a fantastic way to blend art with a little bit of literacy and code-breaking.
3. Ancient Greek Pottery (c. 900 BCE)
The Ancient Greeks were master storytellers, and their pottery was a major medium. They decorated vases and pots with scenes from mythology, sports, and daily life. The two most famous styles are "black-figure," where black figures are painted on a red background, and the later "red-figure," where the figures were left in the natural red clay color and the background was painted black.
You don't need a kiln for this project! Grab a simple terracotta pot from a garden store or even just a sturdy paper plate. Let your child choose a style. For black-figure, they’ll use a black marker or paint to draw heroes, athletes, or mythological beasts onto the orange-red surface. For red-figure, they'll draw their design in pencil first and then carefully fill in the entire background with black paint, leaving their characters in the original terracotta color.
Pro-Tip: Encourage kids to add geometric patterns around the top and bottom rims of their pot or plate, just like the ancient Greek artisans did.
4. Roman Mosaics (c. 200 BCE)
The Romans were brilliant engineers and artists, and they loved decorating their floors and walls with intricate mosaics. These were pictures made from thousands of tiny colored stones, tiles, or glass pieces called tesserae. They depicted everything from grand historical battles to portraits and beautiful geometric patterns.
This is a perfect project for using up old magazines or construction paper. Give your child a piece of cardboard as a base and have them draw a simple design (a fish, a flower, or a simple pattern). Then, they can cut or tear small squares of colored paper and glue them down one by one to fill in the picture. This is a wonderfully meditative activity that builds patience and fine motor skills. For older kids, you can use small craft tiles, dried beans, or lentils for a more textured effect.
Pro-Tip: Leave a tiny gap between each paper square to mimic the look of grout in a real mosaic. It adds a surprising level of authenticity!
5. Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts (c. 500 CE)
In the Middle Ages, before printing presses, books were rare and precious objects copied by hand by monks. To make them even more special, they decorated the pages with beautiful, intricate illustrations, gold leaf, and fancy first letters called "illuminated capitals." These books were true works of art.
Have your child choose the first letter of their name to "illuminate." They can draw it in a large, fancy bubble or block style on a piece of paper. Then, the fun begins! They can fill the letter and the area around it with detailed patterns, curling vines, flowers, or tiny dragons. Use metallic gold and silver markers or paint to capture that precious "illuminated" look. This is a great way to combine art with a personal touch.
Pro-Tip: Frame the finished initial for a beautiful, personalized piece of art for your child's room.
6. Renaissance Portraits (c. 1400 CE)
The Renaissance was a "rebirth" of art and learning, and artists became obsessed with realism. They studied anatomy and perspective to make their paintings look as lifelike as possible. Think of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, with her mysterious smile and the soft, smoky blending of colors—a technique called sfumato.
Challenge your child to create a more realistic portrait than they normally would. They can sit in front of a mirror or use a photo of a family member. Instead of just using lines, encourage them to focus on shading to create depth and form. For a sfumato effect, have them draw with charcoal or a soft pencil and then use their fingers or a cotton ball to gently smudge and blend the shadows. It’s a great introduction to the concepts of light and shadow.
Pro-Tip: Play some classical music from the period while you work to really set the mood and transport you back to a Florentine art studio.
7. Impressionism (c. 1860s)
Tired of stuffy, realistic paintings, the Impressionists wanted to capture a fleeting moment—the "impression" of a scene. Artists like Claude Monet focused on light and color, using short, thick brushstrokes to show how light changed the look of things. They weren't trying to paint a perfect tree; they were trying to paint the light on the tree.
Monet's Water Lilies is the perfect inspiration. Give your child a canvas or thick paper and a palette of blues, greens, purples, and pinks. Show them how to use small, quick dabs of paint instead of long, smooth strokes. Don't worry about staying in the lines! The goal is to build up layers of color to create a shimmering, light-filled scene. Cotton swabs or the ends of brushes can be used to create these distinct dabs of color.
Pro-Tip: Take your art supplies outside! The Impressionists loved painting en plein air (outdoors) to capture natural light. Let your child paint the impression of your backyard or a local park.
8. Pointillism (c. 1880s)
Taking Impressionism a step further, artists like Georges Seurat developed Pointillism. Instead of small brushstrokes, they built their entire paintings from thousands of tiny, distinct dots of pure color. From a distance, your eye optically blends the dots to see a complete, vibrant image.
This is an art style that requires patience but yields amazing results. All you need are cotton swabs and paint. Have your child draw a simple outline of a subject—a piece of fruit, a tree, a simple landscape. Then, instead of painting, they dip the cotton swab in paint and fill the image one dot at a time. Encourage them to place dots of different colors next to each other (like blue and yellow) to create a new color (green) when viewed from afar.
Pro-Tip: This is a fantastic "calm down" activity. The repetitive motion of dotting can be very soothing and mindful for kids (and adults!).
9. Cubism (c. 1907)
Let's break the rules! That's what Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque did when they invented Cubism. They wanted to show a subject from multiple viewpoints all at once. They broke objects down into geometric shapes (cubes, spheres, cylinders) and reassembled them in an abstract way. A Cubist portrait might show a person's face from the front and the side at the same time.
Picasso-style portraits are a blast for kids to make. Start with a photo of your child or have them look in a mirror. On a piece of paper, have them draw a simple profile (side view) of a face. Then, on top of that, have them draw features from a frontal view—two eyes, a forward-facing nose, etc. The results are wonderfully weird and expressive. Use bold, bright colors with black outlines to finish the piece.
Pro-Tip: A fun variation is to cut up photos from old magazines—an eye from one photo, a nose from another, a mouth from a third—and collage them together into a wacky Cubist portrait.
10. Surrealism (c. 1920s)
Welcome to the world of dreams and the subconscious mind! Surrealist artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte painted bizarre, illogical scenes with photographic precision. Think melting clocks, trains coming out of fireplaces, and men with apples for faces. It's all about letting your imagination run wild and creating the unexpected.
Collage is the perfect medium for a young surrealist. Give your child a stack of old magazines, scissors, and a glue stick. The prompt is simple: create a picture that couldn't happen in real life. They can put a fish in the sky, a car in the ocean, or give a cat butterfly wings. There are no rules, and the weirder, the better! This activity is a powerful way to unlock creative thinking and humor. As Goh Ling Yong often emphasizes, play is one of the most powerful tools for learning, and Surrealism is pure artistic play.
Pro-Tip: Use a landscape picture from a magazine as the background and then have your child add surreal elements to it. This provides a great starting point for their imagination.
11. Abstract Expressionism (c. 1940s)
This movement was all about emotion, energy, and the physical act of painting itself. Jackson Pollock, a famous Abstract Expressionist, became known for his "drip paintings." He would lay a huge canvas on the floor and walk around it, dripping, pouring, and splattering paint directly from the can. The painting wasn't just a picture; it was a record of his actions.
This is the ultimate messy, outdoor art project. Lay an old sheet or a large piece of cardboard in the backyard. Use watered-down craft paints in squeeze bottles, cups, or on old brushes. Let your kids move around the "canvas," splattering, dripping, and flicking the paint. Encourage them to experiment with different movements—fast flicks, slow drizzles, big splashes—to see how it affects the marks they make. It's all about the process, not the final product.
Pro-Tip: Play some high-energy music while you work! Let the rhythm guide the painting process and turn it into a full-body creative experience.
12. Pop Art (c. 1950s)
Pop Art artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were inspired by popular culture, advertising, and everyday objects. They took things people saw all the time—like a Campbell's soup can, a Coca-Cola bottle, or a comic book panel—and turned them into high art. Their work is characterized by bright, bold colors and repetition.
A Warhol-inspired print series is a fantastic project. First, have your child choose a very simple object from around the house—a banana, a favorite toy, a cookie cutter. Have them trace the object onto four or six squares on a single sheet of paper. Then, using completely different, vibrant, and non-realistic color combinations for each square, they can color in the object and its background. The repetition with wild color changes is the key to the Pop Art look.
Pro-Tip: For a Lichtenstein effect, show your kids how to create "Ben-Day dots" (the dots used in old comic book printing) by using a pencil eraser dipped in paint to fill in areas of their drawing.
13. Op Art (c. 1960s)
Get ready to trick your eyes! Op Art, or Optical Art, is all about creating illusions. Artists like Bridget Riley used precise patterns, contrasting colors, and geometric shapes to create mind-bending images that seem to move, vibrate, or swell right before your eyes.
A simple "wavy lines" project is a great introduction. Have your child draw a series of dots down the left and right sides of their paper. Then, using a ruler, have them connect the dots with straight, horizontal lines. Next, they draw a few wavy, vertical lines over the top. Finally, they color in the sections, alternating between two high-contrast colors (like black and white). The result is a simple but powerful optical illusion where the straight lines appear to bend and wave.
Pro-Tip: Experiment with other simple Op Art patterns, like a checkerboard that appears to bulge in the center. There are tons of easy-to-follow tutorials online.
14. Street Art & Graffiti (c. 1970s - Present)
Our final stop is the art of today, found not in a gallery but on the walls of our cities. Street artists like Banksy and Keith Haring use stencils, spray paint, and bold graphics to make statements, tell stories, and bring art to everyone. It's vibrant, immediate, and often carries a powerful message.
Let's bring street art indoors with a safe and simple stencil project. Have your child draw a simple, bold shape on a piece of cardstock (a heart, a star, their initial) and carefully cut it out to create a stencil. Tape the stencil onto a fresh sheet of paper. Then, using an old toothbrush dipped in paint, they can flick the bristles to create a cool "spray paint" effect over the stencil. When you peel the stencil away, a sharp, clean image is left behind.
Pro-Tip: The team here at the Goh Ling Yong blog loves this one for older kids. They can create more complex stencils and layer different colors to make a truly dynamic piece of art that reflects their own personality and ideas.
Your Time Machine Awaits
And there you have it—a journey through tens of thousands of years of human creativity, all from your own home. By hopping between these eras, your kids won’t just learn the names of artists or movements; they'll develop a deeper, more intuitive understanding of how art has evolved and how it reflects the world around us.
The most important thing is to have fun and embrace the process. Let the paint get messy, let the lines be wobbly, and let the colors be wonderfully weird. You're not just creating crafts; you're creating memories and planting the seeds for a lifelong love of art.
So, which era will you and your little artist visit first? We'd love to see your time-traveling masterpieces! Share your creations or your favorite art history projects for kids in the comments below.
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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