As you may know, I have a little collection of watercolor sets and I love trying out new ones. Previously, my all-time favorite watercolor set was the Sakura Koi travel set. It was just so portable, handy and the colors are vibrant. When I saw this new set by Grabie, I was intrigued and wanted to try it out. 100 yummy colors! Grabie sent me a sample to try out and review for the blog. I was NOT disappointed! (Amazon … Read more…
I hope the beginning of your school year is going well. Mine is going fine. We are getting back into the swing of things around here. Here is a fun and meditative art project good for kids and adults of all ages. You can tie this in to labrynths, mazes and mandalas. I use all different kinds of watercolor paints. I have a whole collection! One of my favorites is the Prima Marketing Confections sets. There are a number of … Read more…
I have a whole slideshow that I will show my students about Claude Monet and his Impressionist artwork. This is a project I have adapted for distance learning. All of my kids have watercolor paints as part of their art supplies at home. I used this lesson as an idea to adapt my lesson. Usually I have the kids paint on cardboard circles, then attach lilypads using construction paper and tissue paper, but I figured most would not have tissue … Read more…
Here is a fun social emotional project that works for distance learning too. I started with a how to draw a turkey sheet I found online. I wanted to link it here, but when I went to look for it again, it had disappeared! I’ve searched and searched and can’t find the original tutorial. Anyways, you can do the same thing by finding a “how to draw a turkey” step by step online and then doing the next steps you … Read more…
I had my students make painted papers for one week’s assignment. Their task was to make 4 painted papers (two with swatches of color and two with line patterns.). Then, they are going to turn their painted papers into collages the next week. Here are the steps I gave them. We are fully remote here. Watercolor paints was something I put on their supply list.
I realize I had never shared these amazing Notre Dame watercolor and ink drawings my 4th and 5th grade students made at the end of last year. We learned about the architecture of the building and the kids used watercolor and Sharpie pen to create these beautiful pictures. This technique can be used with any architectural lesson or perhaps a lesson on Medieval gargoyles.
In this hot air balloon painting project, my 2nd grade students learned about types of lines, watercolor gradations and warm & cool colors. I saw beautiful, colorful hot air balloon paintings awhile ago from Painted Paper, which you can see by clicking here. I knew I wanted to try something similar. The students learned about warm and cool colors. I set up liquid watercolors in little cups inside muffin tins. I have tried so many different ways to set up … Read more…
My third, fourth and fifth grade students just finished up these gorgeous fall still life paintings. Over the years I have built up a collection of fall decorations, artificial leaves, pumpkins and gourds. I also brought in some real pumpkins and gourds as well. If you want to do some seasonal art and still have solid art standards covered, observational drawing is always a good go-to lesson. For this project, we talked a little about arrangement and composition, which usually … Read more…
Today I’m going to share with a fun technique for older kids or your own personal art journaling/painting. I picked up the Christine Adolph watercolor resist pen from Paper Source, but you can find it on Amazon here (affiliate link.) I thought it would be fun to try out. Watercolor resist works by covering the paper and protecting the area underneath. You can paint right on top of the gummy resist lines. When it is all dry, you can peel … Read more…
Recently, I reviewed the book How to Survive as a Firefly and showed you a firefly art project to go along with the book. I also received a free copy of How to Survive as a Shark from Innovation Press. This book is illustrated in a similar style and is very cute and engaging. There is a lot of great scientific information about sharks in this book. From the publisher’s description:  How to Survive as a Shark provides a unique take on fish … Read more…
I am always trying to come up with new ideas for my youngest students to experience painting in a successful way, learn about important art concepts and still be able to use their creativity. In this lesson, the goals were the following: Students will… Practice using a paintbrush properly. Learn about the qualities of watercolors through instruction and exploration. Experiment with watercolor resist. Be able to identify common shapes such as circle, diamond, triangle, trapezoid, star, square, oval, rectangle, heart and … Read more…
Hi friends!  I was given a free set of Maped Watercolor Pencils to review.  I decided to practice my skills at making videos and I did a review of these pencils. Stay tuned!  In my next blog post, I will give a demonstration of how to use Maped Watercolor Pencils to make a beautiful doodled painting. If you would like to purchase a set, click here: Maped Watercolor Pencils (affiliate links have been used.)
This is a very simple, but satisfying process I tried with 1st graders.  All you need is a pencil, some stencils and watercolors. Over the years I have collected all kinds of stencils from garage sales, thrift stores, donations and catalogs.  I have them all in a big box for kids to pick from.  Sharpies are optional and can be used to trace over lines. The first step is to use the stencils to draw shapes, write words and make designs.  This … Read more…
I feel like I have stumbled upon my newest art series for my own art.  Earlier I wrote a blog post about how to make watercolor doodled flowers. Using a similar technique, I made watercolor mandalas. I have a new painting to show you with watercolor and doodled stars.   These were all made by starting with watercolor paints and then doodling on top with thin markers. Products I Use (Amazon Affiliate links are used) Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: Tropicals Prima Marketing … Read more…
Earlier this summer I wrote a blog post about how to make watercolor doodled flowers. These mandalas I created were made with a very similar technique. Both these mandalas and the flowers were made by starting with watercolor paints and then doodling on top with thin markers. Products I Use (Amazon Affiliate links are used) Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: Tropicals Prima Marketing Watercolor Confections: The Classics Sakura Koi Brush Pen Set Sharpie Permanent Marker, Fine Point Sakura Micron Ink Pen … Read more…
