Watercolor Techniques For Kids

“Colors are the smiles of nature”. Truly, colors play an essential role in human life. They change moods and follow emotions. Green connects you to deep rain forests, light blue connects to sky, brown connects to the soil and black to the darkness. Oscar Wilde once said, “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.” If you want to teach your children about painting, the best way to start would be to start with watercolor. It will not only make your kids aware about the colors but will also be a fun and exciting hobby course. Moreover, it will keep them engaged for hours. Watercolor paints are the least expensive of the fine art paints. Both professional and amateur painters use this medium for portraying their versatile vision. Read on to know more about watercolor techniques for your kids.

Watercolor Painting Techniques For Children

Wet On Wet Technique

This is an easy watercolor painting method. Take a watercolor canvas and fold it into half. Spray water on one-half and leave the other half-dry.
Now let your children try their painting skills on it.
You would get different results on both sides. Discuss the results with children and get their feedback. Have a discussion on the color effect on both sides.

Water Color Wash

A watercolor wash is a basic technique to build a tone and atmosphere in the painting.
Select the color for your background and put extensive amount of paint on the palette. Add enough water to get the color you want. Mix it well to prevent any clumps of pigment transferred to the canvas.
Moisten your canvas. Start painting at the top of the canvas with a wide stroke to the other side.
You must work quickly to avoid the paint setting into an edge.
After painting completely, check whether your strokes are vague or clear. If they come out vague, leave them to dry.
Use a dark marker to highlight the finer details.

Blotting

You can use napkins to absorb the over spilled color on the canvas.
Paper napkins can also help you camouflage minor mistakes in the painting. You can lighten the dark colors on the canvas.
You can even blot away a color completely by using a napkin.

Blend The Color

Use a palette to blend a new color. This method keeps your paper from getting smeared with other colors.
Set each of the colors you want to blend into different wells of the palette.
Wet the end of the palette knife with water. You can pick small amounts of paint using this knife instead of lifting them in excess using a brush.
Select one particular palette well for mixing all the colors you selected.
Mix the colors together with the knife. Add water to minimize the thickness of the paint, if needed.
You can apply it to a moist canvas and blend the colors. Moistening the canvas is important for getting transition effects.

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