With just a basic watercolor palette, the creative possibilities are endless! From watercolor resist art and paper plate flowers to butterfly symmetry prints and starry night sky art, you can explore a variety of watercolor techniques and activities using even the simplest paint sets.
First, we’ll outline the materials needed to get started (which aren’t many), along with a video overview of the ideas. Also, don’t forget to grab the free printable that you can easily print out!
MATERIALS:
- Watercolor paint set
- Paintbrushes and a container of water
- Durable art paper or watercolor paper
- Drawing tools such as crayons, oil pastels, pens, or pencils (depending on the activity)
- You may also want something to protect your work surface.
1. Dot Painting with Watercolors
Craft pointillism-inspired dot artwork using cotton swabs and watercolor paints. You have the freedom to create various images like flowers, butterflies, cars, or faces, delve into abstract art, or even design dot-to-dot pictures for friends or siblings to finish.
2. Calming Scribble Art Project
Grab a crayon or oil pastel and cover your paper with large, looping scribbles. Add color to certain sections using crayons or oil pastels, then fill in the remaining areas with watercolors.
3. Doodled Flowers with Watercolors
Begin with watercolor dots to initiate cheerful doodled flower creations. After painting the dots, embellish them with designs to either cut out or craft into your own stickers!
4. Achieve a Starry Night Sky Look using Salt
Add a touch of salt to a wet watercolor painting to achieve a stunning starry night sky or textured effect. The salt absorbs water from the paint, resulting in white spots in certain areas and more concentrated pigment in others.
5. Watercolor Resist Method
Start by drawing a picture with crayons or oil pastels (whether abstract or realistic, the choice is yours), then apply watercolor paints over the drawing. The wax from the crayons or oil pastels will repel the water-based watercolors, resulting in a straightforward yet almost enchanting effect.
6. Symmetrical Butterfly Prints with Watercolors
Craft stunning butterfly wings with symmetrical patterns using transparent watercolor paints. Begin by folding a piece of paper in half, unfolding it, and sketching the body and wings of a butterfly with crayons or oil pastels. Then, apply a generous amount of wet watercolor paint to one side of the butterfly. Press the other half of the paper onto the wet paint, then unfold to unveil your beautifully symmetrical butterfly print!
7. Crafting Paper Plate Flowers
Inspired by Pink Stripey Socks, create charming paper plate flowers by cutting out several flower shapes from paper plates in varying sizes and joining them together at the center with staples or glue. Use watercolor paint to color your flowers. Once they dry, you can further enhance them with additional doodles and drawings using markers or chalk markers.
8. Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Shapes
Explore the wet-on-wet watercolor method using cookie cutters!
Begin by placing a cookie cutter on your paper. Apply water within the cookie cutter shape. Then, dip your paintbrush into watercolor paint and add it to the wet area inside the cookie cutter. Witness how the color spreads within the water. Dip your brush into another color and repeat the process. Leave the cookie cutter in position and allow your painted shape to dry.
9. Watercolor with Cling Wrap Method
After creating a wet watercolor painting, gently scrunch up cling wrap and place it over the surface. Let it dry overnight to achieve a remarkable geometric effect. The cling wrap causes the watercolor paint to gather where it touches the paper, resulting in intricate geometric patterns.
10. Raised Salt Painting
In this beloved kids’ art project, begin by drawing a picture or creating a squiggle design using a bottle of glue. Next, completely cover the glue lines with salt and shake off any excess. Then, saturate your paintbrush with watercolor paint and gently touch it to the salt-covered glue lines. Witness the enchanting journey of color as it magically travels along the salt and glue!
11. Craft Faux Stained-Glass Artwork
Achieve a stained-glass art illusion by outlining a black “lead” design with glue and filling it in with vibrant translucent watercolors. Start by adding a tablespoon of black tempera or acrylic paint into a half-used glue bottle, then shake it thoroughly. Use the black glue to draw a picture on your paper. Once it’s fully dried, fill in the sections with watercolor paint.
12. Compass Art with Watercolors
Experiment with painting watercolor circles of varying sizes using a compass! Simply swap out the pencil in a regular compass with a small paintbrush (if it’s easier, you can break the paintbrush in half). Then, dip the brush end into paint and create numerous circles across your paper.
So, there you have it! Twelve fantastic watercolor art projects suitable for kids of all ages! Give one a try or explore them all!
