Watercolor Tecniques #4 Wet-on-Wet

This week's watercolor technique explores one of the wonderful properties of watercolors: the ability to run together and blend on a wet page. Make a color wet-on-wet rainbow as you and your little ones discover how stripes of color can blend on a wet paper.

For tutorial #3 you will need:

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolors (tube or cake)
• Assorted brushes (a large sized one will work best)
• Cup of water
• Paper towel or sponge

Since my last video tutorial was such a hit, I made another one for this week's technique. Enjoy!

Feel free to leave me comments or links to any projects you complete using this tutorial. You can find the other watercolor technique posts listed in my sidebar.

Summer Kit Book Links

Here are the Amazon links to the books suggested to help with your Garden Nature Study Lapbook cover collage from your summer kit.

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And these books are great if you are intersted in learning more about the summer kit's featured artist, Claude Monet, and his garden.

Summer Nature Walk Worksheet

So I have put together a Summer Nature Walk Worksheet similar to the fall, winter and spring ones listed in my sidebar.

This worksheet is what I like to call a senses scavenger hunt. One way to get your children involved in your nature walk is to give them a task to find a specific object. You will be amazed what you find once you start looking.

My worksheet is designed to get you and your kids outside, looking for specific things and spending time exploring nature using your different senses. On this worksheet I have included a space to sketch something you find during your nature walk if you have not yet started your own nature journal.
When you click on the link it will take you to a savefile.com page. Scroll to the bottom and click on the Download File button. The download should start automatically. If it doesn't start, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Download File Now. I will be listing the worksheet link on my sidebar as well.

If you have not checked out the Hearts and Trees Summer Themed Art, Nature Study and Handicraft Kit, be sure to check it out. I have some great projects which would be perfect for keeping little hands busy during the hot summer months.

Watercolor Techniques #3 Thick and Thin Lines

This tutorial builds on technique #2 and is again to help increase brush control. The object of this project is to focus on making your brush lines thicker and thinner as you increase and decrease pressure with your brush.

For tutorial #3 you will need:

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolors (tube or cake)
• Assorted brushes (a medium sized one will work best)
• Cup of water

I had a hard time taking photos of each step so we made a video instead. Hope you enjoy.

Feel free to leave me comments or links to any projects you complete using this tutorial. You can also find techniques 1 and 2 in my sidebar.

Watercolor Techniques #2 Stripes of White

This tutorial is to help increase brush control. The object is to concentrate on the white line you are forming between each stripe. Try not to touch any previous strokes, keep the white lines of unpainted paper unbroken.

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For tutorial #2 you will need:

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolors (tube or cake)
• Assorted brushes (a medium sized one will work best)
• Cup of water

Stripes of White Technique:

1. Make a squiggly stripe across the width of your paper.

2. Rinse off your brush. Swish it in the water. Look my water turned pink!

3. Make another stripe just above or below your first stripe. Try to make it really close to your first stripe, but leave a little stripe of white between. You are really working on making your stripes close to each other without running together.

4. Rinse your brush in the water. Look now my water is purple! What color is your water?

5. Keep adding stripes above and below your first stripe until your whole paper is filled. How close can you get your lines without them touching? Really work on keeping a small stripe of white between each color. Can you keep the white stripe even?

6. It's okay if some of them run together. I had that happen a few times on mine.

Have fun. You can check out my Watercolor Technique #1 here. I would love to hear about your experience sharing this tutorial with your children.