Basketball Handprint Painting

A second basketball craft in one week?! It's like I don't even know me! 

Before I get to the tutorial, let me give you a glimpse into how this basketball craft came to be. I sat down on Wednesday morning to work on Fun Family Crafts:

(opens Fun Family Crafts Pinterest account)
Let's see... good traffic on St. Patrick's Day. Spring is picking up. Oh wow - basketball is doing really well. We should do something with that. I wonder if we have enough good basketball crafts to do a roundup.

(opens Fun Family Crafts and searches the basketball tag)
Scroll, scroll... OK, we have some good stuff, a lot of it edible. Some simple, some more difficult, good. I could do a roundup, but I should probably see if I can find one more solid craft. Something unique.

(googles "basketball craft")
Scroll, scroll... hm. Cool idea, terrible photo. Ugh, seen that one a million times. Nice, but that's more generic sports than basketball. Cute referee craft. Are those basketball referees though? What to basketball referees wear? Are they even called referees, or do they have a special name? 

(googles "basketball referees")
OK, standard stripes. I don't think that referee craft screams basketball though. 

(returns to "basketball craft")
Let's see... scroll, scroll... wait, that's cool! Love the texture on that basketball. How did she do that?

(opens blog with cool textured basketball craft)
Oh wow. That's so clever! I'm going to feature this!

(returns to Fun Family Crafts, writes and schedules post)
OK, we're pretty good for a basketball roundup now. I should get started on it before.... You know, we don't have a handprint basketball craft... 

(drops everything and makes basketball craft)

And I still haven't done the basketball roundup. But now I have a basketball handprint craft that I can add to it when I do!

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Basketball Handprint Painting

Materials:

• large white drawing paper 
• pencil
• black Sharpie
• Folk Art paint (I used Dark Hydrangea, Winter White, Medium Gray, Lipstick Red, and Pure Orange)
• Delta Creamcoat Paint (I used Soft Peach)

Steps:

Orient the paper vertically. Using the pencil, lightly trace your dominant hand in the lower center of the paper. (I used Trevor's hands - he's home sick from school- because mine didn't fit as well on the paper, which is why my art project is right-dominant instead of my usual left). Draw the non-dominant hand to the side, where it would be after shooting a basketball.

Draw a horizon line near the middle of the paper. Trace all lines with the Sharpie.

With the pencil, draw a rectangular backstop near the top of the paper. Draw the inner rectangle lightly, then add a circle for the basketball. Add two vertical lines to make the pole, then a skinny oval for the hoop. Add the net. Trace your lines with Sharpie, being careful not to draw the line of the backstop through the basketball. 

Put some Dark Hydrangea and Winter White on a palette. Mix them together, leaving streaks. Use a large brush and horizontal strokes to paint the sky. 

Rinse the brush, then paint the pavement and the pole with Medium Gray. 

Switch to a smaller brush. The sky should be dry, so paint the backstop Winter White, the basketball Pure Orange, and the rim Lipstick Red. 

Fill in the hands with your choice of skin tone. The last time I tried to match skin tone, I failed miserably, but using Soft Peach directly out of the bottle without mixing was actually a pretty close match to Trevor's hands. Good enough, anyway!  

Let the paint dry completely, then retrace all of the lines with the Sharpie. Add lines to the basketball, plus small lines to the hands for the knuckles.

I don't suppose any of you can relate to having dozens of tabs open on the computer while you work, interrupting your own thoughts to Google something, or dropping everything to make a craft? Yeah, that's what I thought!