Ahhh Sydney is in lockdown again! Some thrived last time and some, like BJ, climbed the walls and missed the social interaction of his usual day-to-day life. Last lockdown we pulled out all the stops with different activities and kept the whole family busy and somewhat sane. Last weekend we started looking for new lockdown activities and came across a Simpsons comic canvas art project. It’s simple, relatively cheap and BJ loves the end result. We thought we’d share the idea for anyone looking for entertainment this round of lockdown. Keep in mind, you can change this to any comic book character you like.
SIMPSONS COMIC CANVAS ART PROJECT
We used an old Simpsons comic book of BJ’s that had seen better days and chose pages we thought would look good on the canvas. I know it is awful tearing up a book but it was for a good reason. We chose to use spray adhesive but you could use any glue to stick down the comic. I’d just use it sparingly so it doesn’t wrinkle the comic book pages too badly. We bought a couple of blank canvases from Big W. The smaller one was around $3 and the larger one was $6.
AJ marked out where the comics would go on the canvas with a led pencil and made sure to have enough of the comic overhanging so it would go around the edges of the canvas.
I’m not confident in my free-hand drawing skills so we printed out a black and white Bart Simpson image and cut him out to trace around.
We wanted a light covering of white in the middle so the comic was still easy to see. We only covered the area where Bart was going to be painted. I’ve seen others using regular paint sponged on and it looks good. If you have it on hand it would be fine.
Once the white paint was dry, I used a pencil to draw Bart onto the area.
We then painted Bart his signature yellow colour.
Once the paint was dry I used a black marker to outline Bart.
HOW TO INVOLVE SOMEONE WHO STRUGGLES WITH FINE MOTOR SKILLS
BJ was very interested in parts of the process. He’s never been into art and craft in a big way but I believe in revisiting activities and giving him the opportunity to try things again. Over the years his fine motor and concentration has improved so much I like to try and try again. He liked helping AJ spray the glue and the white paint and he watched intently the whole process.
He enjoyed helping to choose the pages from the comic book and the design to go on the artwork.
If you’re looking for a mess free (I’m not sure there is such a guarantee with anything really) option for painting, you could try these paint sticks. I bought them at Big W but BJ wasn’t keen on giving them a go. He doesn’t like people holding his hand to help him. It’s like he feels trapped. He doesn’t mind putting his hand over ours though to help us. For anyone looking for an independent option, you could make a little lycra pencil/crayon holder.
One of our clever occupational therapists made one for BJ when he was little. This is suitable for any age and it’s simple to make. You just need to change the measurements according to hand size.
We had lots of fun doing this project and BJ is certainly very proud of the end result.
For anyone wondering about the custom Simpsons canvas hanging behind BJ in the top photo, that was a gift we ordered for BJ’s birthday a couple of years ago. It was a novel gift so I’ve put all the details in this blog.
Our Sydney lockdown looks like it might drag on for quite a while, so if you have any tips on lockdown activities, please let us know.
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