Year 7 Art Techniques: 18 Creative Mark-Making, Printing, Painting & Mixed-Media Ideas
A colourful and highly visual Year 7 Art inspiration resource featuring 18 accessible art techniques designed to encourage experimentation, creativity and confidence.
Each technique is presented with a clear visual example and a short, student-friendly explanation, making the resource ideal for KS3 Art lessons, sketchbook development, skills carousels, cover lessons, early finishers or independent experimentation. The emphasis throughout is on LOOK • TRY • EXPERIMENT • REFLECT, rather than simply copying a finished artwork.
Students explore a wide variety of processes, including paper weaving and collage, cotton-bud printing, bubble painting, tape-resist painting, fruit printing, pulled-paint reflections, watercolour blending and washes, pattern doodling, natural-material mosaics, corn-cob printing, painting on fabric and experimental texture/splatter printing.
The techniques help students investigate key visual-art concepts such as colour, texture, pattern, repetition, layering, mark-making, printing, water control, blending and mixed media. The strong photographic examples make the slides particularly useful for visual learners and for displaying on the board while students work.
Included:
18 different art technique ideas
High-quality visual inspiration for every technique
Simple student-friendly instructions
Painting, printing, collage, watercolour and mixed-media processes
Accessible activities using many inexpensive or everyday materials
PowerPoint format for easy classroom display
Suitable for: Year 7 / KS3 Art, approximately ages 11–13. It could also be used with upper KS2 or adapted for older students as an experimental techniques bank.
Great for: introductory Art units, technique samplers, sketchbook development, creative rotations, Art clubs, cover lessons and building students’ confidence with materials before a larger project.






