An Interactive Heart Drawing Activity

Doing an interactive heart drawing is one of our family’s favorite activities for slowing down and connecting through creativity this time of year.

These are a Valentine take on the back-and-forth mandala drawings we do around the year. We love the process of creating a joint artwork, taking turns adding our own design or layer.

I also LOVE the symbolism of “your heart inside my heart inside your heart”! So sweet!

I do this with each of my kids separately and we also do three-way heart mandalas. I’ll share a video I created of this drawing activity in action as well as some notes of materials, steps, and variations below.

An Interactive Heart Drawing Activity

MATERIALS

• Paper
• Drawing tools*

*Anything goes, really. We’ve done this drawing activity with markers, pens, pencils, crayons, oil pastels, and even paints.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step One :: The first person starts by drawing a small heart in the center of the page.

Step Two :: The second person adds a layer to the heart drawing, with another heart or some sort of design element around the first.

Back-and-forth heart mandala in progress with Daphne. ♥️

A photo posted by The Artful Parent ❤ Kids Art (@jeanvanthul) on Feb 6, 2017 at 2:00pm PST

Step Three :: Continue back and forth until both parties decide that the heart is complete.

Step Four :: Sign your collaborative heart art or add a message to it, if you like.

These heart drawings are beautiful and worthy of displaying!

Variations on the Heart Drawing Activity

1. Include a larger group in this activity. We usually do our heart mandalas one-on-one, but sometimes do a three- or four-way heart drawing. You could do this with the whole family or a group of friends.
2. Instead of going back-and-forth right away, leave the heart drawing out over a few days and let each person add their layer at their leisure.
3. Use paints instead of, or in combination with, drawing (as when we first tried this heart art activity).
4. Try collage (as with these sticker mandalas).
5. A single person can make a heart mandala drawing by adding consecutive layers of drawing elements or colors, as in Daphne’s heart drawing above.
6. Do regular back-and-forth mandala drawings (circles) rather than hearts.
7. Tailor this activity to another holiday. We add design layers to Easter egg drawings around Easter, for example.
8. Do regular back-and-forth drawings together.

More Valentine’s Day Activities for Connection

More heartfelt activities you can enjoy together…

• A Map of My Heart :: This is another one that we’ve come back to again and again. Basically, you start with a large heart and draw/write/paint the things and people that are important to you and have a place in your heart. It can be a sweet low-key family activity and a great conversation starter.
• Bake a Valentine Treat Together :: Make memories in the kitchen as you bake and decorate heart-shaped cookies, make heart hand pies, or cook up a heart-shaped pizza.
• Connect over a Valentine craft or art activity.

Want more ideas? Click here for 30 Valentine Crafts and Activities for Kids (with a FREE printable list!).

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