Crayon Resist Death Star Art

This Death Star art is a fun and easy Star Wars idea to add to your collection of art projects for kids! You don’t need many materials to create this, and prep work is minimal.

If you don’t want to add it to your May the 4th Be With You activities, the Death Star painting can be adjusted for other themes. I think a space unit would be a great idea for it, too. Plus, you can change up the colors and designs to make it into something completely different.

2 crayon resist cupcake liners with text that reads death star art for kids

Related: Star Wars Activities

This fun little art idea came about near my son’s birthday. We wanted to make some simple decorations for the day. He remembered the cupcake liner ladybug craft we’d made a week earlier and suggested something like that, “But way more cool and Star Wars, Mom!”

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Death Star Art

Over the years since then, I’ve tried this art idea with kids of various ages. If they’re into Star Wars, it’s always been a hit! If they don’t care about Star Wars, but they still enjoy art, it’s also been fun for them.

Related: Rescue Han Science Experiment

Read below for prepping tips and directions! Please keep in mind that you can make adjustments to my ideas at any time. Do what makes the most sense for you and your students!

How to Prep the Star Wars Art

Start off by gathering the supplies you need for the Death Star art project. Here’s what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

We used the slightly larger-than-average white cupcake liners, along with gray and white crayons. I love liquid watercolors, so that’s what we used. You can, of course, use regular watercolors as well!

Once you have the materials, prep is basically setting everything out in your art center! If you have any pictures of the Death Star, those would be a great reference for the kids, too.

Death Star Art Directions

First, decide on the design for your Death Star. My son and I took a look at some pictures and came up with a pretty simple plan that worked for us. Over the years, it’s the same general one I’ve used with other children, too. Unless they had a different idea.

Next, flatten the cupcake liner and then grab the crayons. We used both white and gray crayons. I think they both turned out well!

Then it’s time to create the “resist” part of the Death Star art. Use your white or gray crayon to draw the design on the flattened cupcake liner. Here’s one we tried:

First, draw the super laser at the top of the Death Star. We made it a circle with a dot in the middle. Then we added lines coming out from the dot.
Next, draw a horizontal line along the center of the liner. Draw a few more horizontal lines above and below the center line.
And then go back and add in vertical lines between each of the horizontal lines. We spaced ours out randomly.

My son also made a few Death Stars with vertical and horizontal lines interconnecting all over the cupcake liner. It’s really up to you and the kiddos how it looks!

Once you’re happy with the design, start painting with your black watercolors. Draw the children’s attention to how the watercolors don’t permeate the spaces where the crayon drawings are. Once everything’s dry, I highly recommend displaying them. We had ours up around the house for the birthday party, and even put a few in the windows.

Do you have a child who would enjoy this simple Death Star art? Be sure to keep this post for future reference. If you have a Star Wars Pinterest board, that’s a good place to start.

More Ideas for the Death Star Drawing

As I mentioned earlier, you can definitely make some tweaks or additions to this art project if you want to! Here are some ideas:

Let the children use different paint colors if they want to create multi-colored Death Star art!
Use the Death Star paintings as prompts for individual, small group, or whole group writing prompts.
Challenge the kids to create their own Death Stars, encouraging them to make different lines and patterns on the cupcake liners.
Change things up completely and turn the liners into something different – like planets, moons, spaceships, flowers, insects, etc. The possibilities are endless.

How would your students create with the base materials of this art idea?

More Star Wars Activities for Kids

If the Death Star art is a big hit with your kids, or if you’re just looking for more ideas, I’ve got you covered:

Space Dramatic Play Resource

My sister site, Preschool Teacher 101, is designed specifically to save you planning time! That way you can focus on connecting with and teaching your students, without giving up your personal time. We have hundreds of lesson plans, STEM challenges, math games, literacy activities, teacher guides, dramatic play packs, and so much more.

To save you even MORE time, we also have The Pack, a membership for preschool and kindergarten teachers. Our members have access to our resources at a very steep discount. And we have multiple membership options for you!

Below are two of our space-themed resources. Click on the images below for the dramatic play set or the lesson plan pack:

Preschool space lesson plans cover — Space Lesson Plans

You can also find our resources on Teachers Pay Teachers.

watercolor art products with text that reads death star star wars art

Originally published May 2015.

Crayon Resist Death Star Art