Watercolor Techniques for Kids

Supplies
Watercolor Paint
Watercolor Paper
Watercolor Paint Brush (Large Flat)
Water in a container
Paper towel or rag
Salt in a container or bowl
Rubbing Alcohol in a container or bowl (be careful!)
One straw
Push Pin (be careful!) or toothpick
Masking Tape (Optional)
Steps
1. Use masking tape to create 8 spaces on your paper (You could also just draw 8 squares
or shapes)
2. Make a puddle of water in the tray, or on a plate, and add some color to it
3. Paint a wash in one of your squares, overlap the color slightly, making sure you don’t
scrub the paper
4. Paint a second wash next to it (this will be used for a glaze later)
5. Paint a third flat wash and get your salt ready! After you paint in the square, sprinkle in
some salt before it dries and leave it till it is completely dry
6. Make a wash that gradually gets lighter by starting at the top of your square with paint
from your puddle (you can make more than one puddle for different colors), then start to
add water to your paint brush as you move towards the bottom of your paper.
7. Paint in one square using only water. While it is still wet drop color into it, this is the Wet
on Wet technique.
8. Paint a flat wash in the next space. While it is still wet, use the end of your paintbrush to
dip into the rubbing alcohol then tough your paper with it.
9. The Dry Brush technique is next. In the next space, dip your paint brush into a puddle
of paint or right into a color in your paint tray, dry it off a little on your paper towel,
smash the hairs on the brush flat then paint them onto your paper. It should look a little
like grass or hair.
10. Scratch into the next square with your push pin or toothpick, then paint over it with a
wash (anywhere you scratch should be darker) This is called Sgraffito
11. Add a drop of paint to a square with a flat wash. Use your straw to blow the puddle and
create branches
12. In one of your flat washes paint another color over part of it. Make sure not to scrub it
with your brush. This is called Glazing technique. Take the tape off.
Adaptions
Younger Children - Use only a few techniques, salt, wet in wet, flat wash, gradated wash
No supplies besides the paint and brushes? No Problem, you can still do the flat wash, wet
in wet, dry brush, and gradated wash
No Masking Tape? You can just draw 8 shapes for the techniques, just don’t make them too
small
Extensions
More Techniques - Plastic wrap, crayon resist, stamping, blending color into color, shading
Create paintings for each of the techniques
Create a painting using ALL the techniques
Create a color wheel
Science - What other liquids and solids can you use to create a reaction in your watercolor
paint? (soap, India ink, etc).
Why does alcohol cause the color to “move away”
Why does the
salt cause snowflake patterns?
Homework
Use 2-3 of these techniques to make a new painting
Vocabulary
Wash
Glaze
Sgraffito
Tips
The Techniques we use in this video are:
Flat Wash,
Glazing,
Salt
, Gradated Wash,
Wet in Wet,
Alcohol resist
, Dry Brush
, Sgraffio,
Straw Branches
Vocabulary
Wash
Glaze
Sgraffito
This tutorial was made by McCall Johnson for Mr Otter Studio
Music A Piano Tale by Immersive Music
Purchased music license from PremiumBeat.com