Since the death of beloved lion Cecil, we have been wanting to do a lion painting with Akira to show our support for the cause of saving innocent endangered animal species.
So we made this painting yesterday with all the supplies I had handy. As it turned out, it was the most opportune time to make it. I was not aware that today, i.e. 10th August, is National Lion Day and National Geographic has come up with its High Five, Give Five campaign.
So I did modify the message of painting to ‘5 FOR BIG CATS’ and it just could not have been a better virtual high five! We have done our bit, but please do join us in the uproar! Share your virtual high fives using #5forBigCats and donate to the campaign!
Supplies
- Crayola Washable Kid’s Paint
- Crayola Artist Brushes
- Construction Paper
- Mod Podge
- Foam brush
- Colored Markers
Directions to make the handprint lion
- To start with, cut a white Construction Paper in half. Then mix a little of orange and yellow paints to get the desired shade for the lion’s body.
- Paint your child’s hand in the paint mix and press it in the center of paper to get the handprint. It took me 3 attempts to get it right as Akira was not co-operating 🙂
- Flip the handprint vertically so that the fingers are pointing down. The fingers make for 4 legs of the lion and the thumb becomes the tail. Now using the leftover paint mix, paint the tail tuft at end of the thumb. At the opposite side, paint a circle to make the head. Also, paint some streaks around circle to make the mane of the lion.
- Mix some brown with the yellow paint to create a light brown shade. Now apply it in streaks on lion’s mane and tail tuft.
- Apply white paint dots to make the eye sockets of the lion.
- Finish off the painting using brown color marker to make the eyes, nose, ears and paw nails.
- After the paint dries, stick the paper on top of another colored construction paper using craft glue or mod podge. Now your painting is framed, just sign it!
So are you ready to show off your virtual high five for the big cats?
