K and 1st Spring Watercolors!

I found the inspiration for these lovely spring watercolor paintings on Art Projects for Kids. It's a terrific exercise in simple landscape drawing for Kinders and 1st graders, and the frame around the edges of the drawing really helps students use all of their space rather than drawing tiny flowers in the middle of their paper. So this works as an excellent introduction to composition, as well. I decided to use watercolor paper and liquid watercolors as my youngest artists needed a new paint medium to explore.

Here's what we did:

1. Class 1: I led the first class, the drawing portion, from the white board while drawing along with the children.



• We drew the frame first, and I gave 1st grade students and advanced Ks the option of creating a double frame. Some of them added patterns within their frames. 
• We then drew a horizon line. This could be grass or it could be hills. I left it up to my students.
• We began adding flowers by drawing the blooms first, positioning them toward the top of the frame. Stems and leaves were added next. Whimsical flowers are a favorite of mine in my own art work, and the kids always make comments when they see my screen saver (seen in this post). This was a great opportunity to show them how I use lines and shapes to come up with fun new flowers to draw, and it allowed them to create their own imaginative flowers.
• We then discussed the types of insects and bugs one might see in the spring. (We did this project in early April...I've just been late in posting.) Students added a bug or two or three flying through the air or crawling in the grass or on the leaves of the flowers.
• Students then traced ALL of their pencil lines in Sharpie. This was excellent practice in using fine motor skills. Also, a number of students didn't understand the term "trace," so this was useful for vocabulary, as well.
2. Class 2: Students painted their drawings with liquid watercolors. I really love these SO much more than pan watercolors. My only complaint is how easily the colors get muddy. Kinders aren't careful about cleaning their brushes, and by the time I got to paint with the last class (of 10), the blues and greens were a bit grayed out, and the yellow...well, the yellow simply was no more. I freshened the yellows for my 1st graders once, and we managed to keep them fairly yellow-ish for at least long enough to finish painting.
• Here are some terrific tips on storing and using liquid watercolors from Deep Space Sparkle's blog.

And here are more of our colorful spring watercolor paintings:

"This is the most fun ever!"

Those are definitely words you want to hear in the art room. This is the first time I've attempted to splatter paint with my students, and I'm so glad I gave it a go. It was so much fun! (for the kids AND for me!)
This started out as a basic self-portrait project. While talking about facial proportion, Kindergarten and 1st grade students drew themselves during a guided lesson. They then colored with crayon and cut out their self-portraits, and glued these to construction paper in a color of their choice. I encourage them to choose a contrasting color (so no pink if you colored your shirt pink, although it seems the young lady to the left slipped past me).

When these were done, they were cute, but they were missing something. I came across the book, I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, by Karen Beaumont, with hilarious and illustrations by David Catrow, and decided that we simply MUST splatter our self-portraits!

I had parent volunteers (2 per class) come in to help out, with the painting being done in a centers set-up. We pulled three students at a time, with the others watching Harold and the Purple Crayon or Purple, Green, and Yellow on Tumblebooks (by Robert Munsch, another great story about a girl who colors herself). I put the artwork in boxes (which are now quite colorful and beautiful on the inside), demonstrated for students how to flick the paint, and encouraged them to aim for the edges of their paper (so their faces didn't completely disappear). The adults handled the brush, loading paint and rinsing between colors, which sped things up and kept the yellow from turning green.

I must say that we managed to keep the paint mostly contained (though a few kids ended up a tiny bit speckled), the students loved it, and so far no teachers have yelled at me. And the results are pretty darn cute, too.

I have about 175 kinders and 1st graders, so here are just a few:

Even MORE Underwater Watercolors!

Kindergarten drew warm-colored fish (at least that was the plan) in crayon and then painted a cool-colored watercolor wash over their entire paper. Paper size is 6"x9". Great experience in watercolor techniques for these young artists!

Alex - Kindergarten

Samantha - Kindergarten

Tylah - Kindergarten

Yoandri - Kindergarten

Expressionist Self-Portraits (K-2)

Another K-2 color project this year is the following Expressionist self-portrait series. I had to rethink the self-portrait project for this age because of the time required to do the van Gogh-inspired self-portraits. This one takes only three class periods (as opposed to six).

For this project, K and 1st used crayons and tempera paint, and 2nd used oil pastels and tempera, all on manila drawing paper. The resist technique is basically the same as the watercolor resist underwater paintings we do, but tempera is thicker and more opaque than watercolor, so students have the opportunity to experiment with and compare both types of paint.

Art topics and elements discussed: Expressionism, color use in expressing emotion and mood, proportions of the human face

Brescia - Kindergarten

Samantha - Kindergarten ("Look, Ms. Renn! I'm a RAINBOW!")

Since I can't give first and last names, I prefer to tell you that this young artist's last name is Blue. :) - 1st grade

Chris - 1st grade

Emily - 1st grade

Kalani - 1st grade

Louie - 1st grade

Jozette - 2nd grade

Conrad - 2nd grade

(My classes are 45 minutes, and K-2 meets with me every day for 35 consecutive school days (rather than once a week for the entire year). I much prefer this schedule, as it allows for greater continuity in the classroom (kids don't forget from day to day, but they forget A LOT from week to week). This schedule also allows me to better control supplies.)

More Underwater Scenes: Watercolor Resist (K-2)

The student work below was painted on 90# watercolor paper  (as opposed to 140# paper used on the other works on the lesson plan). Quality does make a difference, but these colorful underwater landscapes are still beautiful and successful, and the young artists who created them are rightfully so proud of their work!
(Salt yielded little or no results on the thinner paper, so was omitted from these works.)

 

Watercolor Resist: Warm and Cool Colors (K-2)

I love exploring watercolor with my lower primary students! This simple watercolor resist project is always a favorite of young artists, and it's a wonderful way to let them experiment with the medium while discovering color. Warm sea life against cool water and seaweed provides brilliant contrast and results in a simply beautiful underwater landscape!

This lesson is written for K-2 students; however, I've done it with older students, and it can easily be adapted for 3rd-5th grade, as well.

Here are a few samples from K-3 students:

Ashley - 2nd grade

Ben - 2nd grade

Ramsey - 3rd

Rhenay - Kindergarten

Materials (for each student):

• Student-grade watercolors (the examples above utilized Prang 16 color watercolor palette)
• Two watercolor brushes (one medium/large and one smaller - #9 or so)
• 9"x12" watercolor paper 
• Crayons (with high wax content, Crayola works well) or oil pastels
• 2B or 3B pencil
• Salt (pinch or two)
• Watercolor/low-tack tape
• Tissue/small paper towel
• Water cup and water
  
• Optional:
• 9"x12" newsprint (for 2nd grade and older) for preliminary drawings
• Kneaded erasers

Vocabulary:

• watercolor techniques:
• wet-on-wet
• wet-on-dry
• dry-on-wet
• dry-on-dry
• transparent/translucent
• line
• warm colors
• cool colors
• resist
• blot
• absorb
• bleed

Art Elements Addressed:

• Line
• Shape
• Space
• Color
• Texture
• Value

Prior to Lesson:

• Art Elements: Prior to this lesson I cover Line, Space, Shape and an Introduction to Color
• Using watercolor or low-tack masking tape, tape off edges of watercolor paper so that finished painting will have a crisp edge (1/2-3/4"). (This step can easily be skipped, but I like the crisp clean edge that masking provides. Plus, the kids love the "magic" of seeing the crisp border appear when the tape is removed, and it makes them feel like their painting is more professional.)
  

Lesson Organization and Procedure:

My classes are 45 minutes each, which ends up being about 30 by the time we get started and have to stop for clean-up, so I divide this lesson into four classes:

• Day 1 - Intro discussion and drawing the scene on watercolor paper
• Discussion: warm/cool colors; resist; ocean life (draw examples on the white board/Promethean board, or have copies to hand out to students)
• Project: Draw an underwater scene on watercolor paper.
• Young students: Draw three of the same animals (fish, jellyfish, etc.).
• Older students: Draw three animals of choice.
• Encourage students to vary the size of the animals to create contrast.
• Encourage students to draw VERY lightly so that mistakes can be easily erased without scarring the surface of the paper. I tell students to draw as lightly as they would pet a delicate butterfly...if you draw/pet too firmly you'll squish your butterfly. We want our butterflies to live long, happy lives! 
• Emphasize LINES...drawings should look like a coloring book page. Nothing should be filled in with pencil. I do encourage students to create designs and patterns on their sea animals, but the finished drawing must be constructed only of LINES.
• Day 2 - Trace the drawing in crayon/oil pastel
• I've had students use warm colors only on fish/sea life, and I've let them mix warm and cool colors. I haven't found there to be much difference. Usually the kids intuitively choose colors that are intense and beautiful anyway.
• COOL TIP: White creates awesome bubbles that POP into existence when the ocean is painted.
• Again, emphasize that this is a LINE drawing at this point. Color will be added with watercolor paints. (I have to say this several times, especially to younger students who want to color their drawing.)
• Day 3 - Paint the background using cool colors (ocean - and seaweed if time)
• Demonstrate wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, dry-on-wet, and dry-on-dry techniques. If time and materials allow, give students a small scrap of watercolor paper and let them experiment with each technique as you demonstrate.
• Prepare paints by dropping a couple of large drops of water on the colors that will be used. This will soften the paint and make it easier to pick up with the brush.
• Painting the background using wet-on-wet technique: 
• Using the medium/large brush, tell students to use WATER ONLY to wet their paper where the ocean will be. (They'll paint around fish, seaweed, and other sea life.) Paper should be obviously wet, but water shouldn't puddle. Use a tissue to blot puddles if necessary.
• While the paper is still wet, load brush with water and desired COOL paint color and touch to wet paper. Slowly distribute ocean color until all "water" areas are painted.
• Note that the paint will not spread to the dry paper by itself, but it bleeds freely where the paper is wet. 
• Also note that the wax in the crayons/oil pastels resists the water in the paint and the lines magically appear through the watercolor paint! (This gets much cooler on Day 4 when painting the sea life!)
• Sprinkle a pinch or two of salt on WET paint, distributing all over the water, and allow to dry without touching or blending.
• Paint seaweed if time allows. DO NOT wet paper before painting or seaweed will bleed into the ocean (though this can be pretty, too...it will happen inevitably anyway. :)
• Day 4 - Paint animal life using warm colors
• Prepare paint by applying a couple of drops of water to colors as on Day 3.
• Paint animals using WARM colors. Apply using wet-on-dry and dry-on-dry techniques. Students should observe the varying behavior of the paint depending on the technique used.
• When paintings are dry: 
• Brush away salt to reveal beautiful crystallized texture in the water!
• Carefully remove masking tape trim.