Making a cat squeegee painting is SO MUCH FUN!! This easy art project is simple and quick enough for kids and teens to make, but also fun for adults. No need for a paintbrush or any special art techniques when making these cat scrape paintings!
Have you ever painted with a squeegee?! We had a blast making abstract art with our squeegee paintings, so we decided to make more squeegee art. Read on to find out how to transform a simple line of paint into an adorable cat painting!
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How to Make a Cat Squeegee Painting
Materials:
- Watercolor paper
- Acrylic paint (several colours or shades)
- Fine tipped black marker
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Add lines of paint to paper
- Place your piece of paper on a baking tray or other protected surface, like a plastic tablecloth.
- Add a short horizontal line of paint on the paper. This will be the top of the cat's head.
- Use a toothpick (or fine tipped paintbrush) to push some of the paint up and out on an angle.
- Repeat on the other side, going out at the opposite angle.
Step 3: Use a squeegee to paint the cat
- Place a squeegee down on the paper above the paint. Press down and pull the squeegee towards yourself, continuing all the way down the paper.You've created a cat shape!
- Now use a different colour (or shade) of paint to add another line of paint. Add the paint at a different height than the previous cat, and overlap them a bit.Then use the toothpick to create the diagonal lines for the ears.
- Use the squeegee again (make sure you've rinsed or wiped it off first!) to scrape the paint down the paper.
- Continue, adding as many cats as you'd like. We added 4 cats to this squeegee painting, but you can add more shorter cats on top of the previous cats if you'd like.
Step 4: Draw cat's faces on the painting
- Once the paint is dry (it should dry quickly), use a fine tipped black marker to draw the cat's face. We added eyes, a nose, whiskers, a mouth, and details on the ears.
- Repeat, giving each of the cats a different "purr-sonality".You can make different shapes for the eyes and mouth, fill in the ears and nose or just do the outline, give them different amounts of whiskers, etc.
- Your cat squeegee painting is complete!
Helpful Tips:
- Don’t want to spread the paint with a toothpick? You can also pour your paint into a fine tipped squeeze bottle and use that.
- Try different colour combinations of cat “families”. See which colours mix nicely, or use different shades of the same colour.
- Feel free to decorate your cats even more! You can give them stripes, spots, or any other feature or accessory you’d like.
What type of paint is best for making a cat squeegee painting?
We recommend using acrylic paint to make a cat squeegee painting. It’s inexpensive and easy to find, and it produces really bold and bright colours.
Some people use puffy paint to make cat scrape art. It’s a good option because the narrow nozzle allows you to create the ear shape without using a toothpick to shape it. But we found the colours to be really muted once the excess paint was scraped off, so we preferred using the acrylic paint.
What type of paper is best for making a cat scrape painting?
Watercolour paper is great to use for squeegee painting because it’s very absorbent. The thin layer of paint dries really quickly, allowing you to draw the faces on almost immediately.
Cardstock will also work if that’s all you have. It might warp a little bit and will take longer to dry, but since the paint layer is so thin, it’s not a huge concern.
You can also buy small canvases at the dollar store and do your squeegee painting on those. This will give your cat scrape art a textured look!
Can I make a cat squeegee painting without a squeegee?
Yes, you can make a squeegee painting without a squeegee, as long as you have something else to scrape the paint with. That being said, we do prefer using a squeegee for scrape art.
Squeegees are easy to hold and they give you the most control, allowing you to scrape the paint off with an even pressure. The end result looks the best when using a squeegee.
But if you don’t have a squeegee, you can also use a plastic ruler or an expired gift card. You can even use a piece of cardboard, though it doesn’t scrape as evenly, and it becomes soggy after one or two uses.
Make an easy and colourful cat squeegee painting! It’s so simple to create adorable cat paintings using this simple technique and a squeegee. This scraper art activity is fun for art days at home or a fun lesson at school.
Here’s even more kids art ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
what a cool craft. I am in my 60’s and can’t wait to make my first squeegee kitty😸
I love that, Susan! Us adults deserve to have fun too. :p