How to Paint with Feathers: 5 Fun & Easy Ideas

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Your kids will love these 5 fun ways to paint with feathers. These process art activities are perfect all year or during a study of birds or Thanksgiving turkeys.

Are you looking for some new process art ideas? How about an art connection to your Thanksgiving unit? Why not try painting with feathers. Kids really enjoy the sensory experience of working with feathers and feathers help create some really interesting feather artwork.

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Here are 5 art activities for preschoolers for you to try.

Paint with Feathers

Painting with feathers is such an easy art project. It can’t get much simpler than providing a variety of feathers and some paint.

add paint to a muffin tin and get your feathers ready for painting.

Let your kids experiment. How do the lines change when you use a different feather? Which feather do you prefer to paint with? Why?

You can also add some water to make the paint thinner. Does this make a difference in the feather painting art?

painting with a single red feather on green paper using brightly colored tempera paint

Start with a Drop of Paint

Rather than letting kids dip the feathers into the paint, drop paint directly onto the paper with a dropper or squeeze bottle. Then, kids can spread the paint around with feathers.

drop paint and then use a feather to spread the paint

Do some feathers spread the paint better than others? What happens when one color spreads into another?

Make Feather Paint Brushes

Use duct tape to attach several feathers to small dowels or pencils to create some unique feathery, DIY paintbrushes.

I love seeing the lines that these fun paintbrushes create. Why are some parts of the line thick and other parts of the line thin?

Does one brush make different lines than the other? How are the lines different? How are they the same?

painting with a homemade feather paintbrush

Feather Prints

My favorite method of painting with feathers is creating feather prints. Instead of painting with feathers, this time kids need to paint the feathers.

As they paint, kids might notice that feathers repel the paint. Why do you think this happens?

After applying paint to the feather, show kids how to press the feather in a folded piece of paper. When they open up the paper and pull off the feather, a gorgeous print is visible on both sides of the paper.

Press feather between folded paper to make a print

They can try it with multiple types of feathers and multiple colors of paint. The prints are gorgeous!

feather prints on a folded piece of white paper - an example of how to paint with feathers

Make a Painted Feather Collage

A little glue will do.

Combine glue and tempera paint. Kids can paint over feathers with the mixture and the feathers will stick to the paper.

Use glue and paint to glue feathers to a piece of construction paper.

What parts of the feather are easy to stick? What parts are more difficult? I think it’s fun to observe how feathers look when you glue them down with different colors of paint.

Feather art made from feather, paint, and glue - an example of feather painting ideas

I hope that these ideas inspired you to try some new ways to use feathers for painting. These methods are great art activities to use during units about birds, turkeys, Thanksgiving, or for any time of year.

Do you use another method to paint with feathers? I would love to hear more ideas.

Where to Find Supplies for Your Feather Painting Projects

Below are some items from Amazon that can be used for the activities mentioned in this article. The links below are affiliate links. There is no additional cost to you when you purchase something from a link, but a small commission is paid to me. This commission is used towards the cost of maintaining this website.