Make Torn Paper Landscape Art With Kids

For your own torn paper landscapes, you’ll need:

How to Make Torn Paper Landscape Art – DIY Instructions:

Learn how to create captivating, textured paper landscapes using torn paper using our simple step-by-step instructions.

Tear up a few sheets of colored scrap paper.

Rip that paper UP! Experiment with ripping it at different angles to create “hill” or “slope” shapes. The messy ripped edges add a cool, stylized element of texture and dimension.

Glue down landscape layers from the torn pieces.

Pick 3 or 4 (or more) colors you like together and lay them on top of each other. Torn paper works really well for making mountains, but you don’t have to stick with what I did!

When you start moving shapes and colors around, you might begin to see other places too…beaches, fields, forests…let your imagination take you wherever it wants to go! Once you find a landscape you like, glue your layers down with a glue stick, working your way from the back to front (background to foreground).

Trim excess paper from the edges.

Flip your project over and trim the excess, following the sides of your base sheet.

Pro tip: save the leftover scraps created from this project for some quick scrap paper collages or a simple color exploration grid for kids!

Create mountains with a simple DIY stamp.

You can stop here and enjoy a beautiful paper landscape, but you can also add a few more details. We used a simple homemade triangle-shaped stamp to add a grove of mountain-top trees.

We’ve included the simple how-to for that below, and if you choose to make your own stamp, you can use it to add your own groups of trees (or other landscape elements). Think about where you’d like to see them in the mountains.

If you have two sizes of triangle stamps, you can use a larger one in the foreground and a smaller one in the background to create depth – or maybe your trees aren’t even triangles – you can make them any shape you like! You can stamp in various colors or one color; add a forest or only a few unique trees here and there.

Variations on our Paper Landscape Art

Here are a few project variations that can help you cater this project to diverse skill levels and interests, making it an inclusive and engaging activity that encourages creativity, experimentation, and self-expression for kids and adults alike...

• Use various climates for inspiration. As we did for our bison paper prairie landscapes, research unique environments around the world or use a trip to a different region for inspiration. Make a desert scene, create a paper savanna landscape, or turn torn paper into a polar climate. This works well as a classroom art project complement to lessons on biomes.
• Create a watercolor paper landscape collage. Recycle old watercolor artwork or paint a few pieces of paper with watercolors for a different look.
• Try a collaborative paper landscape class art project. Invite students to work on one long sheet of butcher paper to build a scene from torn paper. They can create one large paper city landscape, a long tropical beach landscape, a lunar paper landscape, or an underwater panorama.
• Collage a set of seasonal paper landscapes. Make a set of four landscapes, recreating the same scene for each season.
• Limit the color palette. Challenge kids to work within a specific color range (use only blues, work with warm colors, or limit the piece to a secondary color and its complement, for instance).
• Use a wide variety of papers. Tissue paper, newspaper, patterned origami paper, vellum or tracing paper, graph paper, handmade paper, or other specialty art papers are all great supplies to experiment with when making paper landscape collages. You can even see what happens if you mix in aluminum foil scraps, torn paper labels or product packaging, old book pages, fabric scraps, or other recycled materials.

Find fresh paper landscape art inspiration…

Landscapes are a timeless art theme, and there’s no shortage of artists to gather inspiration from, but here are a handful of my tip-top favorites you MUST check out. Some of these artists make landscapes from paper, and others use entirely different materials, but all are guaranteed to get the creative wheels turning…

• Etel Adnan – at the top of the list (for me) are Etel Adnan’s paintings. Wait until you see her color palettes – fresh and energetic but still so faithful to their natural inspiration…!
• Ilse d’Hollander – If bold blocks of color are your style, you’re going to love d’Hollander’s landscapes.
• Fans of collage, here are three artists who’ve created landscapes you’ll love: Start with Peter Arthur Hutchinson‘s work – a master study in collaging photography to build detailed, fanciful nature landscapes. See how artist Jenny Odell combined cut-out satellite imagery to create images of our shared modern landscapes. And for a truly unique technique, visit Hearne Pardee’s notable works – it’s no surprise that he lists Paul Klee as one of his inspirations.
• Nigel Peake’s book ‘In the Wilds’ has earned a permanent spot on my nightstand. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve poured over the pages, amazed at how he can translate the complex rural landscapes I’ve grown up in through line and color.
• If you recognize the name “Kandinsky” from perusing for elementary art project ideas, you’re probably familiar with his concentric circles, but Vasilly Kandinsky’s landscape paintings have always been the ones I personally prefer. I mean, just LOOK at the brushwork and color-use genius expressed in this winter landscape!
• I could lose myself in this online collection of Ampilatwatja Paintings for hours (I find Jeannie Beasley Pula’s work especially eye-catching – do you have a favorite…?).
• Interested in being transported? Take a gander at Harold Ancart’s seascapes – bold and brooding, but SO calming to me…just like a trip to the seaside.
• If you’re having trouble beginning your project, just take a few minutes to observe the scenery right outside of your window. Many artists in this list have used a favorite view from home to inspire their work, and for a fantastic example, check out artist Andreas Eriksson who has mastered making his surroundings in MANY different mediums.