Watercolor Techniques

Supplies:

watercolors

water

watercolor paper

brushes

skewers

spray bottles

salt

small toys

saran wrap

small sticks, leaves and flowers

rubber cement

cheap masking tape (Dollar Tree)

Instructions:

1. Sticks and Saran wrap: Go on a walk to collect ideas of what to draw. Sketch the neighbor's dog, a tree, a house or the pattern on the railing up to a house. While you are walking collect small sticks, leaves and flowers. Tape watercolor paper down on all sides. Wet the entire paper with water. Paint. Lay items on the paper. Cover with saran wrap. Let dry overnight.

2. Small Toys and Spray Bottle: Tape paper down. Put toys on paper. Mix paint with small amount of water (or use liquid watercolors). Spray paper. Lift off toys to see silhouette.

3. Salt: Paint paper with watercolors. Put salt on. Let dry. (Result are little stars.)

4. Skewers: Paint paper. Let dry. Use a skewer to draw lines over with black paint (watercolor, tempera, ink, or acrylic).

5. Rubber Cement: Put rubber cement down on paper. This is fun to tape the paper to the window first with an image underneath. Then put the rubber cement where the black lines would be. Let rubber cement dry (a few seconds). Tape paper down. Watercolor. Let dry. Rub the cement off. (Result the rubber cement resisted the paint. It is white where the cement was.)

Tips: l

* Rip paper into fourths so kids can experiment

* Any watercolor is 'saved' by putting saran wrap over it and letting it dry... if it STILL needs help let the child add details with colored pencil.

*Tape paper down on all sides so it doesn't curl or run away from you

* Artist tape is nice but expensive. Cheap Dollar Tree masking tape works well and won't rip the paper if you pull up gently when the paper is dry.

*Small children need their paints sprayed so they are wet enough.

*Small children use too much water. Older children don't use enough water.