(click on the picture to see it large)This week we took our cue from the fun we had last week with the Color Mixing Jungle. My daughter, H, was especially excited about learning to draw more different kids of flowers, being quite the little flower fairy herself.
We pulled out a favorite book, The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown. It has wonderful illustrations of all types of flowers. We also had a field guide handy, but in all honesty, the Egg Book was the bigger hit. We looked through the books and sketched the different types of flowers, noting the different shapes and configurations. After making a scratch paper sketch bank of possible flower types we began sketching on watercolor paper. I made my whole sketch first, but the kids were anxious to begin coloring, so they did some. We started out with crayons, but decided that we would switch to oil pastels in the middle. Either will work with watercolor resist, so choose what you like. Mindful to use several shades for flowers and leaves we colored our drawings, adding an extra blossom or leaf where we wanted to. Remember that light colors (even white) can look especially neat with the resiste technique.
Afterwards, we did a watercolor wash over the page, varying the color and intenstity to add interest. Don't use too much paint or the pigment may obscure some of your crayoning. It shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, if you have colored heavy enough. If you want to, you can sprinkle a little bit of clear water hear and there to make a dappled effect. The kids are still working on theirs so I promised I wouldn't post it yet, but mine is posted as an example...
H (5yo) has already made use of her new knowledge of flower sketching to make pretty Easter cards for her family.
Materials:
flower field guide or
The Golden Egg book by Margaret Wise Brown
watercolor paper (or other heavy stock)
crayons or oil pastels
pencils
watercolors and brushes
4 comments:
That picture is beautiful!!! I can't wait to show the girls in the morning. They will love it. I have the Golden Egg Book somewhere. I need to dig it out. I have decided that we are going to do a study of wildfowers for our nature study focus. I think this art project will go nicely. I'm excited about the new blog and the art projects to come. I also can't wait to see E's and H's.
Thank you! I thought about some of my friends' nature studies when I was doing this too. :o)
Hey Michelle, These are beautiful. What kind of water colors do you use? And do you paint over the picture with the same color? You probably explained this somewhere here. It is 12:45am and I am feeling quite dense!
Hi Kirsten,
for this particular project we used a product called Liquid Watercolor made by colorations and sold at Discount School Supply. The are more vibrant than regular pan watercolors and can't be made thick as regular watercolors can, so there is no chance of them obscurring the pastel/crayon work. Regular watercolors (tube or pan) can be used, however, just be sure they aren't too thick and painty, but more thin and washy. Enjoy! (and get some sleep. :o) )
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