Art teachers share their favorite Sharpie® projects

Permanent Sharpie markers are a favorite with teachers and students alike. Keep reading to see how art teachers are using them in their classrooms and get inspiration for your own Sharpie projects.  

• We always use Sharpie markers to outline the designs for our linoleum print plates! They work so well! – Wendy S. Sweigart 

• One of my favorite Sharpie projects is an Australian-inspired X-ray drawing, using Sharpies for the patterns. My students also love using Sharpies when drawing designs for our school yearbook cover. – Holly Dake Proctor 

• I love using Sharpies on a project where students create a design with hot glue then cover it in aluminum foil. They color the foil with Sharpies! They are beautiful and fun! – Melissa Scruggs Brashear

• I just completed fifth grade wax museum portraits and the fine point and the ultra-fine point Sharpie markers really added to the finished projects! – Kelly Minder

• We use Sharpies for tie-dye sneakers. – Sheila Kroseberg

• I do Shrinky Dinks as an end-of-year project with my fifth graders. And the Sharpie markers always come out with the best results. – Kelly Betz

• I wrote a grant through the SC MAC SmartARTs to have resident artist, illustrator, and author Tim Davis work with my fourth and fifth grade students on hidden pictures. The students enjoyed hiding images in plain sight and using Sharpie markers to bring life to their creations. Students learned how to use the various art techniques and marker tips to place emphasis on their work. – Wonda Hillard

• I love using colored Sharpies as a reward for my Title I students to do their best. This is our “I have a dream” project with fifth grade. – Dana Peele 

• I love when I do a lesson on writing notes to others and students become creative using colors to make them POP! – Nancy Pipp 

• New Orleans “shotgun” house pictures! – Gina Brinser 

• I LOVE using Sharpies to do watercolor resist art projects with my students. They are always so amazed how the colors stay put and don’t bleed. – Debra Caine

• My favorite Sharpie art this year was hand-drawn video game cases. Each case has a handmade game and they all fit into the handmade gaming unit! – Suzie Morlan Carrasco

• We love Sharpie markers! I like to do an Op Art project using black Sharpies. – Sonya Hampton Coley 

• My favorite is neurographic art. I use watercolor and black fine-point Sharpies and Sharpie pens. – Angela Marenger Hobbs 

• My favorite #SharpieArt projects to do with students are Zentangle collages and decorating covers for books with accordion-folded pages! – Hannah Moerke 

• Pop art collaborative projects! – Tanya Pratt 

• We use Sharpies for so many projects — how can I pick just one? They are the go-to markers for my older students. Chihuly sculptures using acetate, graphic design/posters, coloring Model Magic, Zentangles, neurographic art, and so many more!! Sharpies are quality markers we can depend on! – JojoMa Wasserman  

• Cardboard mandala designs with Sharpies! – Ellen Shumaker 

• We like to make comic books and add line work to watercolor paintings! – Jason D. Brewer 

• My students and I love using Sharpie Markers on the Nasco Sketchables Post Cards! The post cards are very economical and work so well with Sharpies! – Jill Wells Overton 

• Although there are so, so many uses of Sharpies in my classroom, my Chemistry scholars love the chromatography experiment that separates the “ink mixtures” found in different types of Sharpies compared to other name-brand markers! Not only does the hands-on approach in using the Sharpies keep their engagement, but it enhances their awareness as consumer shoppers when comparing products they purchase and makes them relevant to their personal lives and the classroom. – Traci L. Cain 

• My Art 1 students utilize Sharpies in the first project of the year and beyond. The line project utilizes monochromatic color to focus on dominant and subordinate lines, and with the multitude of shades and tints for each color, the results would be even more fantastic. My AP students add final details with their Sharpies or create entire artworks. One is focusing on studying animal anatomy to approach human anatomy and perfect it in her portraiture. – Michelle O’Reagan 

• Sharpie tiles make cute decoration in the classroom! – Natasha Cole Pappas 

• Zentangle ceiling tiles! – Lisa Bertetto 

• My favorite Sharpie project is the Mother’s Day keychains I made with my third graders. The kids wrote a message on the special plastic (we put lines on it to look like notebook paper) and then we shrunk it. They always turn out so cute! – Jenny Holcomb 

• Seventh graders use Sharpies to trace a tessellation pattern and then work in groups to cut their pattern paper into outfits. Student’s create their own brands, then — after watching a little “Shark Tank” — have to pitch their brand or outfit to the class to convince them to invest. Other teachers and admin are invited every semester to be guest judges. –
  Christopher House

• There are so many wonderful projects with Sharpies! One of my favorites is to make a coaster with an abstract color pattern using Sharpie on a plain white glazed ceramic tile. Students use Sharpies to color different patches of color directly onto the ceramic tile (using a limited palette is best). After they have colored the tile, they use a dropper filled with rubbing alcohol to make the colors run and blend to make fascinating changes in the color. Then, they use it as a beautiful coaster! – Danellen Johnson DeHuff

• I like to use Sharpies for drawing Zentangles. The solid lines of the Sharpie create excellent contrast and the ink doesn’t smear. – Laura Burdick

• #SharpieArt is my favorite thing to do with the students I’ve worked with! In doing portraiture, not only do the Sharpies make the art POP but nothing works better than the fine line Sharpies when trying to get all those details in. – @cassconk

What’s your favorite Sharpie project to do with your students? Share in the comments below!