As most of my readers know, I'm an artist and an art teacher. While I've recently transitioned into doing a little more oil painting, my true love has always been watercolor. A couple of weeks ago I taught the kids in one of my classes some tricks you can do with watercolor to create really cool effects! You can use these to create texture in pictures by layering overtop of them, or do an abstract painting using the techniques alone (I'll include some of my students' finished abstract paintings at the bottom).
The great thing about these techniques is that they're all done with things that most people have around the house! Below are pictures of the techniques and descriptions of how to do them.
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| Crumple up and flatten out a piece of aluminum foil, then put it on top of wet paint (you may need to put something on top of it to hold it down). |
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| Put cheesecloth on top of wet paper (or wet paint), then put more paint back overtop of it. The amount of time you leave the cheesecloth on will determine the effect you get (try out different drying times). |
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| Crumple up plastic wrap and flatten it down over wet paint; this one will also differ depending on how long you leave it on the paint (the longer you leave it, the sharper the edges will be). |
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| This one is the most well-known! Sprinkle salt over wet paint to get a cool snowflake effect! Try different types of salt - table, rock, kosher, pretzel, etc. |
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| Drop rubbing alcohol on wet paint to make this bubble-like effect. |
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| Blow wet paint around your paper with a drinking straw! |
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| Tape off shapes with masking (or painter's) tape, then peel up the tape after the paint is dry. |
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| Crayons create a wax resist (as do candles). Draw with white crayons (like you do with Easter eggs!) or colored crayons, and then paint over them. |
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| Tear small shapes out of wax paper, and place them over wet paint; then bleed other colors around the edges. Peel up when paint is dry. |
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| Sarah, age 11 |
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| Brianna, age 11 |
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| Micaela, age 11 |
One last tip before you go grab your painting supplies: the more water you add to your paints, the more vibrant your colors will be! And if you really want to get nice color, go out and spend a few more bucks to get some Prang or slightly nicer watercolors. (That's what my students used.) The next thing you know, you'll be amazing your friends with your mad watercolor skills!
If you do some paintings, please email me pictures! I'd love to see what you do!
katherinedownieartist@gmail.com
4 comments:
Thanks for the tips, Katherine! Those kids are better at watercolor painting than I am. I always have a hard time controlling the colors and making them do what I want... always turns into a big mess. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist.
Do you ever use watercolor pencils, and do you recommend them? Just curious!
Thanks for the great ideas! I want to try them. The paintings by the students are wonderful - so colorful and imaginative! Of course, they are no Katherine Downie!
So Cameron LOVES to paint, and I bought him all sorts of paints to try, and he decided he liked watercolors the best. I thought you would be proud. ;) We'll send some pictures to you. And we'll definitely try the techniques out. :)
Ashley - I haven't used watercolor pencils much, and when I have, have had varying degrees of success. (How's that for a clear answer?!?) They're fun to play with, though! As for controlling colors, make sure that you give each area time to dry before painting near it. When I do smaller paintings, I'm usually doing 2 or more at once so I can work on another while one is drying. (My current paintings are so large I don't worry about that as much!)
Thanks, Mom!
And Mills, I'm so glad Cameron loves watercolors best! I definitely want to see his work!
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