Inside : Over 30 Great Painting Ideas For Teens 

With today’s society becoming increasingly digitized, it’s not uncommon for teens to spend a majority of their time scrolling on their phone.

Painting is a wonderful way to keep them from racking up their screen time while also tapping into their artistic side! Not to mention how fun it can be.

In this list, we will guide you through a ton of different ways to encourage your teens to express their creativity through the medium of painting.

From art therapy to cool room paintings, these will hopefully inspire them to want to pick up a brush and some colors. Let’s take a look!

Teens Art Therapy

Paintings For Teenage Rooms

Add a touch of art to your teen’s space to help inspire creativity!

  1. Name Painting: Such a cute addition to any bedroom! 
  2. Initial Painting: Another beautiful way to personalize your teen’s bedroom!
  3. Abstract Art: A more modern way to add art to your room.
  4. Inspirational Painting: Nothing will encourage your teen to get out of bed in the morning like some inspirational artwork!
  5. Wall Mural: Wall murals are a gorgeous way to include paintings into your teen’s bedroom, and it allows their personality to shine through!
  6. Landscape Painting: A scene from nature as a painting will add a tranquil feel to the room, plus you can choose to make it as big as a mural or just hang it up as a smaller piece.
  7. Sports Inspired: A painting like this is perfect if your teen is an athlete!

Art Therapy For Teens

Art, specifically painting, is a wonderful way to encourage self expression.

  1. Paint Your Emotions: With this activity, your teen will focus on what they’re feeling in that moment and try to express it through painting them out. 
  2. Self Portrait: Draw yourself! This may reveal a lot more information about yourself than you may think.
  3. Paint To Music: Throw on your favorite artist, song, or album in the background and start painting whatever flows out of you!
  4. Scribble Drawing: For this, your teen will scribble some lines on a canvas or paper, and then go back and try to create something more meaningful from those scribbles. It’s kind of like cloud watching, what do you see in the scribbles? Draw it out!
  5. Paint With Eyes Closed: Not being able to see what you’re creating intensifies the experience. Plus, you may be surprised at what you made once you open your eyes!
  6. Paint Outside: Grab your supplies and head outdoors! Let nature relax you and also inspire you.
  7. Draw What Scares You: We all have fears, but drawing yourself and looking at it head on is a way to face it.
  8. Paint A Rock: Draw a face on it, or a tiny portrait, or just a word! Whatever you want. Finding the perfect rock is a really fun activity to do as well.
  9. Paint Yourself As A Superhero: What’s your power? What does your outfit look like? Do you have a cape? The possibilities are endless!
  10. Paint A Word: Choose a word. You can generate one from a website, or choose your favorite word, or the word that describes how you’re feeling. Paint out how that word looks in your head with color!

Teen Room Painting Ideas

Teenage Canvas Painting Ideas

A great activity to do when spending a night with your friends.

  1. Out Of This World: If you were the ruler of your own planet, what would it look like? What color is it? How many moons does it have? Any rings? This is such a fun activity! 
  2. Paint Your Dream Destination: Whether you want to sneak away to a cabin in the woods or lounge about a lazy beach town, draw it out!
  3. Your Favorite Season: Think of your favorite season. What do you think of it in association with it? What colors, activities, anything!
  4. Crayon Melt: This is such a cool way to create a unique painting! Grab a couple of crayons and a hairdryer and some glue. Glue the crayons to the canvas and then melt them with the hairdryer, it will add so much texture and definition to your painting!
  5. Geometric Painting With Tape: A super simple way to make your painting look so much more legit. Set down tape in cool shapes and then paint over it. Once it’s dry, peel off the tape and you’ll have clean, straight lines that make an awesome design!
  6. Hand Prints: This idea is so cute but so easy to do. You can do it with your best friends, your partner, or your family! Each of you dip your hands into some paint and then press it into the canvas.
  7. Ombre: Ombre is really easy to complete and it still comes out looking super artistic.
  8. Paint In A Cup: Okay, hear me out. Grab a plastic cup, and fill it up with different color paints. But don’t mix it! Then, once you have all your colors in there that you want, place a canvas on top, and flip everything over! Then slowly lift up the cup and you’ll be shocked at how beautiful the results are.
  9. Layered Mountains: I love this one because it almost always comes out so nicely!

Painting Ideas For Teens

Extra Fun Teen Painting Ideas

Have the most fun while participating in these super fun painting ideas!

  1. Finger Painting: Let out your inner child by getting your hands dirty and dipping your fingers into the paint and using no brushes!
  2. Splatter Painting: Start off painting your whole surface one solid color, then take a brush (or your hands) and dip them in colors and just fling it at the canvas! The splatter from the brush onto the surface will create a unique artwork.
  3. DIY Jackson Pollack: This one is honestly so much fun. Grab a box, and place your surface inside the box. Then grab some balls, or marble, anything that will roll around really, and coat them in paint. Toss them into the box, and tilt it every which way! The paint covered marbles will create a Pollack-Esque masterpiece.
  4. Spin Art: A super fun and easy way to make a one of a kind piece!
  5. Paint By Numbers: If you’re not a super artistic person, you can always just color in a pre-made work with a number guide.
  6. Watercolor: This way of painting creates such a different type of outcome as opposed to regular paint. Dip your brush in some water beforehand and grab a watercolor palette for this one!
  7. Paint A Vinyl: You make a whole day out of this project! Go to your nearest record shop and pick up any one. Then, head home and use the record as your canvas!
  8. Use Your Body: Buy skin-safe paint and use your body as the canvas!
  9. Use Your Friend’s Body: This one is so much fun! You and your friends will paint something on each other’s back and they can’t know what it is until the project is complete and you show them a picture of it. This one is guaranteed to make you all laugh.
  10. Balloon Painting: Fill a balloon, or multiple balloons, with different paint colors, then lay them on your canvas and pop them!
  11. Symmetry Painting: Paint something on one half of a piece of paper, then fold it in half! This works really well with objects such as butterflies, trees, and snowflakes.

More Ideas Teenagers Will Love

  • Best Chores For Teenagers + Tips For Creating Habits – While your teens may be in your house under your roof right now, that won’t always be the case. Preparing them for being on their own and in the real world with a few chores that establish a routine is a wonderful tool! While teenagers aren’t the most susceptible to being told what to do, this guide will help you think of ways to implement tips and tricks that will encourage them to not only do their chores, but establish a routine at the same time.
  • Best Family Vacation With Teens – When your kids start to grow up, family vacations may not be as fun. But on the upside, they’re a lot more independent and you get more time to relax! But either way, planning a family vacation can definitely be a tricky situation if you have picky teens who hate being away from their friends. But no worries! We’ve listed out more than 20 of the best vacations to take with your teenagers.
  • Best Movies To Watch With Teens – A great way to spend time with your teenagers is having a movie night. However, there is literally nothing more awkward or uncomfortable when the movie you’re watching with them has a racy scene in it. So, we have compiled a listing of the 100 best movies to watch with your teenagers, so now you’ll always have plenty of options for those family movie nights without having to scroll through titles for a long time.