Fun with Fingerprint Animal Art

Fingerprint art is practically a childhood rite of passage. Indeed, I first created fingerprint art with my kids back when they were in preschool. We used red ink and a black marker to make fingerprint ladybugs.

Since it has been a few years since we last did fingerprint art, I thought we’d give it another try. This time, I didn’t want to limit them to just creating ladybugs. Instead, we decided to create all manner of fingerprint animals based on my kids’ creative imaginations.

Note: For more awesome art projects, see my arts and crafts for kids page.

To make fingerprint animals, you will need the following materials:

• Paper or cardstock
• Stamp pads in a variety of colors (like this Melissa & Doug multi-colored stamp pad)
• Fine tip markers (we like these Sharpies)

I asked my kids to draw a line across their paper to get started. The purpose was to provide some sort of anchor for the foreground and background.

Once our lines were drawn, I encouraged my kids to start adding fingerprints to their papers.

After making fingerprints, I had my kids thoroughly wash the ink from their fingers.

Then we looked at some examples of fingerprint animals to get inspired.

Finally, I handed them some markers and invited them to turn their fingerprints into animals.

Here’s a look at how some of our fingerprint animal projects turned out!

If you want to take your fingerprint artwork to the next level, below are a few books I recommend to really up your game.

Ed Emberley’s Complete Funprint Drawing Book by Ed Emberley

Fingerprint & Draw: Animals & Insects by Maite Balart

Fingerprint Activities Under the Sea by Fiona Watt

Happy creating!

More arts and crafts resources

Popular arts and crafts activities from Gift of Curiosity:

• Watercolor on paper towels
• Blow art monsters
• Painting with strings
• Leaf collages
• Tape resist watercolor painting
• Crystallized snowflakes
• Seed medallions
• Trace the shapes art project

For more kid-friendly craft projects, see my Arts and Crafts for Kids page and my Arts and Crafts Pinterest board.