Here's a simple watercolor project I tried out last week. It turned out to be a good way to teach the very basics of watercolor, namely that if you paint on dry paper, you get clean lines, and if you paint on wet, you get fuzzy.1. Working with 11" x 15" watercolor paper, the students first drew along with me in pencil. I asked them to draw a horizon line near the top, and then an upside down skinny "V" to look like a road that disappears into a dot when it goes far away. Curvy roads were also allowed.
2. The areas on either side of the road were going to be fields, so the students were to divide them into about 3 or 4 sections.
3. A simple house was added on top on the horizon line.
4. I gave each student a thin brush and choice of bright liquid watercolors. (I like to dissolve the Crayona tablets in spillproof cups ahead of time.) They were to "draw" with their brushes and paint over all their pencil lines, taking care to make them as neat as possible. When finished, they could dab at their lines to speed up the drying for the next step. This again is an example of "dry" watercolor painting.
5. For the "wet" technique, I showed students what happened if they painted their fields with a color, and then added small dots or lines on top. Fuzzy shapes would appear, which could be plants of any nature. Lastly some green landscaping was added on the horizon, along with a blue sky. And a new discovery, the pencil lines erase easily when the paper is dry, which makes for a much nicer looking painting when complete. I was so happy with the overall results, I'm putting this project in my keeper file.
2. The areas on either side of the road were going to be fields, so the students were to divide them into about 3 or 4 sections.
3. A simple house was added on top on the horizon line.
4. I gave each student a thin brush and choice of bright liquid watercolors. (I like to dissolve the Crayona tablets in spillproof cups ahead of time.) They were to "draw" with their brushes and paint over all their pencil lines, taking care to make them as neat as possible. When finished, they could dab at their lines to speed up the drying for the next step. This again is an example of "dry" watercolor painting.
5. For the "wet" technique, I showed students what happened if they painted their fields with a color, and then added small dots or lines on top. Fuzzy shapes would appear, which could be plants of any nature. Lastly some green landscaping was added on the horizon, along with a blue sky. And a new discovery, the pencil lines erase easily when the paper is dry, which makes for a much nicer looking painting when complete. I was so happy with the overall results, I'm putting this project in my keeper file.
4 comments:
Kathy,
your blog is so helpful! I have a question; how do I get the students to use lovely soft bright colors such as you show in your example?
Any classroom hints? I have been disappointed a number of times this year as I teach a lesson in landscape painting and the students don't listen to me.
They load up the brushes with dark brown, or black paint for anything that they think is "ground", tree trunks get the same treatment. Tree leaves are dark green, sky is dark blue,and of course a "sun" in the sky that is a dirty yellow(from all the dark colors painted first. I have removed the brown and black boxes from the paint trays but they still manage to make everything dark and muddy.
Thanks Janice,
I understand about the dark colors. This project was the first time I even made a brown paint for students to use. I do think the liquid watercolors in spillproof cups are key. I even just put one brush in each to hopefully keep them from getting mixed up and contaminating other colors. I also make sure my sample picture has unusual colors to hopefully steer them in that direction. Hope those tips help a bit.
I've been haunting your blog ever since I posted about you a few weeks ago. I love all your projects! I've been trying to decide which one I wanted to do myself and I think this one is a winner. I've never played with watercolors before. Wish me luck! :)
Dear Kathy,
I observed another art teacher deal with the muddy color issue with painting in a wonderful way and I use it also (after reading Janice Skivington's post). What she did was set out the watercolors, a cup of water to wash brushes with, a brush for each student and a piece of moistened old sponge about 2 inches square. Her students 1st. dip the wet brush into 1 paint color, fill in that color on their paper, rinse the brush in the water when finished, tap the sponge 3 times after with the tip of the sponge then go to the next color. Sometimes she even only gives one color at a time to slow down the muddy mix. She starts it in K and by 2nd grade she doesn't even have to say anything when they see everything set up on the table.
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