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3 Watercolor Techniques Kids Will Love

Watercolors are not all about impressionism and making beautiful pictures of boats paddling on a lake. Rather, they can also be about just messing around with paint and seeing what happens. In this post we will look at three techniques -- wet on wet, salt and clingfilm -- that will make some great patterns. The kids can get messy too, which something they will certainly enjoy!

Wet-on-Wet: A Good Basic Technique

Wet on wet is a technique where the watercolors mix on the paper itself as opposed to on the palette.

  • Tape the paper down so it is taught when it dries
  • Using a brush with clean water, wet the watercolor paper all over
  • Now use 3-4 different colors to paint patterns. The paint will mix while wet and come out with a range of new colors.
  • Let it dry!

This is a basic technique that could serve them for their future painting in a range of other uses of watercolors. It will be the basis of the next two techniques that we will look at next.

Salt and Watercolors

After trying the wet-on-wet technique above, then sprinkle some salt on the paper. You can be gentle using a home salt shaker or pour it on thickly to see what will happen!

Salt has different effects depending on the size of the crystals. Have you any coarse sea salt? Shake that on the paper to see what happens!

When the paper dries shake the salt off and it will leave behind light and dark patches in incredible patterns.

Clingfilm and Watercolors

This third technique is a chance for the kids to get messy!

Having done the wet-on-wet technique, get some clingfilm and press it on, scrunching it up and then leaving it on while the paint dries.

The result will be fun patterns that the kids will have enjoyed making simply because paint gets everywhere!

Buy Your Watercolors from Color Swell

When you run out of your watercolor supplies, be sure to check out Color Swell’s range of bulk watercolors and art supplies. We’re sure you’ll love the price and quality!