THE TOOLS
MATERIALS:
- Oil Pastels (I love Pentel, they are very cost effective and super brilliant for kiddos & adults)
- Washi Tape or painter tape
- Paint Palette
- Liquid Watercolors (watered down)
- Paintbrushes (thicker one and thin one)
- Watercolor paper I Used 9×12 and I love Canson brand’s quality!
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THEME: Watercolor posters
ART LINGO:Oil Resist, Wet on Wet watercolor + Pattern Play
APPROX TIME: 30+ minutes
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Any Age
Who doesn’t love some positive words to inspire you to be your amazing self! Join us for a super fun + whimsical art project that is a perfect space to play with process art, get creative with lettering practice (for our little ones) and invent some amazing patterns.
You ready to get to it?? COME ON AND SCROLL DOWN WITH ME
STEPS
Step 1:
Get your watercolor paper, washi tape and pastels ready to go. First things first: think of your positive word or short phrase you want to do for your piece. I chose ‘You are fun’! Other fun ideas would be:
Grateful, Wonder , Be Brilliant, Shine Bright, I Love You, Kindness, Goodness, All The Feels
Once you have your word/phrase, count how many letters are in it and then get ready to divide your paper into a grid with each square holding one of your letters. For instance, my phrase ‘You are fun’ is 9 letters long so I made sure my grid had 3 rows of 3 totaling 9 squares. Once you figure out your letters go ahead and start masking off your grid using Washi tape (see photo 1). BTW WHO DOESN’T LOVE WASHI TAPE..it is so versatile and the colors and patterns are extremely fun to collect, it like Pokemon cards for adults….gotta collect them all. I use Washi tape for wrapping gifts, framing art work, collages, and so much more!
I used thin washi tape for the grid and a slightly thicker version for my border. Be sure to press down firmly so the tape is nice and secure. I didn’t worry about measuring it to be perfect I just made sure it ‘looked close enough’ 🙂
Step 2:
Grab your pastels and think of the color palette you want to use (Warm/Cool/Rainbow/Neon. I used a red/orange/peach palette so I went through my pastels and picked colors in those color families (See photo 2). Go ahead and write your letters in each square nice and big! You can make them bold or whimsical or straight lined, have fun with this part!!!!!!
Using oil pastels for this project is key. Crayons will totally work too but I love that pastels feel slightly more advanced. Seeing the kiddos in my classes get huge surprise smiles when they see the magic of adding watercolor on top of pastels is priceless, they love watching the watercolor run away from the pastels and their secret faint drawings POP!!!
Step 3:
Now is when we really get to get creative!! Go ahead and start adding patterns / dots / dashes / stripes / zig zags around each letter being sure to follow the lines of the letters. I made sure to give each letter a few different shades of color and varied my lines and patterns with each letter! (See photo 3)
Step 4:
Your piece looks AMAZING doesn’t it!! Now we get to add that COLOR!!! Grab your paint palette and place 1-3 drops of liquid watercolor in each pan, You can again think about color palette here, I used purple and reds in various hues, adding 1 drop in one paint well and 3 in another so my reds and purple varied. Once you have your drops in add some water to each well to ‘water down’ the liquid watercolor, otherwise they can be quite INTENSE in color! This step is optional but I liked how it came out on my piece.
Start with one square at a time and get the square wet with just water, this is the start of the ‘WET ON WET’ technique. Once your square is wet go ahead and dip your brush in one of your liquid watercolor paint wells and then place your brush gently on you wet section of your poster, watch as the colors flow and swirl!! Repeat this with a different color on the same square and marvel how the colors meld and mix gently together!!!! (See photo 4 & 5)
Repeat with each square the wet on wet technique, switching up color combos and brush stroke techniques. The goal here is to PLAY with the colors and just have fun with it! You should start to see your oil pastels ‘RESISTING’ the watercolor and standing out against the watercolor…MAGIC!!!!!!!! I love working with liquid watercolors and resist materials. Pastels are the most fun/colorful way for our kiddos to explore this idea! (See Photo 6)
Step 5:
Your paper poster should be fairly wet at this point, if needed go ahead and grab a paper towel/old rag and gently dab any ‘puddles’ of paint you may see in your piece. If you want you could find a sunny space to lay your art work to dry or just set it aside until it is DRY!!! I usually have my kiddos lay these outside in the sun to dry while we clean up. (See photos 7)!
Once your art work is really really really dry….I mean really make sure or this next part won’t go so well. Begin to oh so gently take the washi tape off your piece reveling your beautiful positive phrase poster!! BONUS POINTS: you could use your washi tape again in another art piece, maybe it’s a washi tape portrait of just a silly collage on a small piece of paper! I love to make things last longer then just one use 🙂
I hope you had so much fun playing with textures, patterns and prints with this project. It is such a fun tactile lesson for our young kiddos: they get to practice using scissors and tape, letter skills, imaginative pattern making and watercolor swirling! For our older kiddos and adults this is a chance to let your skills shine! Get wild with you prints and patterns! Have fun mixing new colors!
I can’t wait to frame this in my daughters room this weekend!!!! Until next month….
xx
Mrs. K!
