Yupo paper

I have a girlfriend in Seattle who is a wonderful art teacher. If you are anywhere close to the Woodinville area, you need to get your child enrolled at Seahorse Studio ASAP!!!  I had my own daughter take classes from her because no preteen wants their mother to tell them ANYTHING.  Suzy just about broke me buying frames from the artwork my daughter created under her guidance.

Together we volunteered in our children's elementary school for 10 years chairing the Art Docent program and she hands down is why I am now teaching today.  She is one of the most inspiring women I have ever met and also my greatest support as a teacher.  I truly enjoy our phone calls.  Phone calls which seem to end all too quickly and I realize we spent all our time excitedly sharing with each other projects we have done in our studio with children instead of asking how our own children are actually doing these days!!!.

How many times we each say, "You HAVE to try this project with your kids"!!

If you had to take a shot each and every time we said it, you'd be walking sideways.

I'm going to have to make sure my son doesn't read this or he and his buddies will be hanging out in the kitchen during our next phone call playing a drinking game doing just that!   He seems to find enough ways to drink now that he is in University without Suzy and I inspiring another one.

We should just stick to art.

Which I'm sure we will be doing lots of this summer when we are in France together meandering down the canals on a barge!  Talk that I'm sure will make our husbands happy there is lots of good wine for them to drink, although I doubt seriously they will be taking shots of it when we exclaim, "You have got to try this project!"

One of those things she insisted I had to try was watercolor on Yupo paper.

Amazing!

Yupo paper has since become a staple in my studio.

I could not find clear Yupo paper at our art supply store in Vancouver like Suzy suggested, but on a whim I tried a clear acetate they had with much the same results.

And because I was doing the project in a class of 12, I also did not have access to enough watercolor so I used a blue ink.

This was a great lesson to help kids see the importance of value!  I had them each put an animal of their choosing under the clear acetate and then begin by painting in the darkest areas.  Since it is a synthetic paper, the ink does not absorb.  It moves on a whim and even better still, if the child hates their work, they can wipe that paper clean and start all over again!

Every. single. child. did this at least once just because it was so cool to have a piece of paper that allowed a complete "do over" when painting.

Once they were happy with their work, I let them dry and then put a matte varnish on top to set the ink. I then used Spray Mount to put the work on a clean white sheet of paper and cut it to size.

I think they came out beautiful!

12 year old

9 year old

10 year old

9 year old

9 year old

8 year old