Art Ideas Blog Seven: How to make Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers
The seventh entry in our creative blog series #artideas is a brilliant craft project perfect for ages 5-9 from a very talented Scottish artist , Lucy Hughes.
Here Lucy shows you how to make a colourful tribute to Vincent van Gogh's famous still life Sunflowers.
What you will need:
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• 1 sheet of coloured A4 card
• 1 sheet of yellow A4 paper
• Card – old cereal box
• 2 straws
• A round template – jar lid
• Pencil
• Marker pen
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Glue
• Cellotape
Step 1:
For the sunflower heads. Place the paper in portrait position. Measure in 7cm from the left at the top and bottom, mark with a pencil and join your marks with a ruler.
Step 2:
Repeat step 1, and cut along the lines dividing the sheet into three.
Step 3:
Take your first strip and measure in 2cm from the left. Mark at the top and bottom and join the marks with a ruler. Fold along this line and then fold the smaller side in half.
Repeat step 3 on the other two strips.
Step 4:
Use scissors to (carefully!) make cuts to the first fold, roughly 1cm apart. Make sure not to cut beyond the fold.
Step 5:
Turn strip around and make cuts to the second fold, again, roughly 1cm apart. Making sure not to cut beyond the fold.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 on the other two strips.
Step 6:
Fold each strip in half lengthways and wrap paper around in a circle securing with cellotape. Fold both the smaller and longer flaps flat out to create the petals.
Step 7:
To make the sunflower centres. Place jar lid on card and draw around it with a pencil, colour in with a marker pen and cut out.
Repeat twice more.
Step 8:
To make the sunflower stems. Carefully cut one of the straws in half.
Step 9:
To make the vase, draw a vase shape in pencil on the card, and once you are happy with the shape, trace over with the marker pen and cut out (colour in if you wish!).
Step 10:
Arranging the sunflowers. Place the flower heads at the top of your sheet of card. Arrange the straws underneath; use the longest straw for the top flower and shorter straws for the lower flowers. Place the vase at the base of the stems (covering the bottoms).
Step 11:
Sticking everything down. First use cellotape to attach the straws, place at the top and bottom so the flower heads and vase cover the cellotape. Next using the shorter flaps, glue the flower heads down onto the card. Glue the vase on top of the stems at the bottom of the page. Finally glue the flower centres on top of the flower heads, et voila!
About the Artist
Lucy Hughes is an artist and graphic designer based in Dundee, Scotland. She loves to design and illustrate.