Watercolor Still Life

When it comes to painting, most children need to practice looking at subtle changes in color. The skilled student may already see this, but others may have not been asked to think about it before. In this case, they are challenged to make as many values as they can with just one color and a little water.

1. On a chalk board, draw three simple still life shapes: the coffee cup, the wine glass and a bowl. Ask the students to draw all three in pencil on a 9" x 12" watercolor paper, but note that the items MUST all overlap in some fashion. Add a table edge line somewhere in the middle.
2. Give each student a single dark crayon for them to trace all their pencil lines.
3. Give each student a watercolor set, brush, water, and mixing tray. Tell them they are to use only ONE of the colors in the tray. With this color, they may add water to make different values, for example, very dark red, medium dark red, light red and very light red. As they mix the colors, they should paint in each section of their drawing. The goal is to not have any similar values next to each other.