Incorporating Pony Beads on Paintings

My children have enjoyed quite a bit of free time this past week. As usual, I am delighted with the independent activities they find to keep themselves busy. My daughter locked herself away in our downstairs art room for hours yesterday. When she finally emerged and showed me her creation, I was truly impressed.

Her painting reminded me of an altered art book with her incorporation of pony beads and layering into the painting. Not surprisingly, the subject of her painting was swimming (if you read my blog regularly you know the driving passion in my daughter's life is competitive swimming).

She drew her swimmers on cardstock and used colored pencils to add details. Then, she cut them out and glued them on her prepared base. The part I adored, though, was the addition of blue pony beads for lane lines. She used tacky glue to adhere them in a straight, but not perfectly straight, fashion to mimic the movement of the lane lines in the waves created by the swimmers during competition.
After studying her picture, I was thinking that this idea could easily be incorporated for another sports-themed painting. A basketball fan could use pony beads to mark out the lines on a basketball court. A football fan could create pony bead goal lines. I think this would be a fun and meaningful art project for many sports-enthusiasts!