I find that having the kids create a watercolor prior to working on the silk is a great introduction to how to manipulate the medium. I also find that this is a great way to placate the kids as they wait for the resist to dry on their final drawings that they transferred on the silk.
Using the same final sketch, each child transferred their drawing not only on the silk but also on a piece of watercolor paper. I then gave each child liquid watercolor in only the primary colors. I did hand out a bit of black toward the end for those artists who needed it.
5 year old
Liquid watercolor is my absolute favorite to use with children. They get vibrant colors and it is easy for them to use so they spend time really exploring what they can create on paper. I love that instead of having access to lots of color someone else created for them on a pan, they get to create all the colors in the rainbow by themselves.
6 year old
It is so rewarding to listen to them get excited as they discover how to make something new- like brown! Doing this project at the beginning of the week really bonded the campers together too because they felt like a "team" after sharing how to get some of the more difficult colors they wanted for these paintings.
7 year old
I love observing kids sharing and creating together during the process of creating art.
Once they had their pencil sketches transferred onto the watercolor paper, they went over the lines with a permanent black pen. I usually have them sign their work at this time too. Then I showed them a couple of things they could try with watercolors, blotting, blooming, and of course salt.
5 year old
How awesome is the six legged giraffe? I smile every time I look at this drawing.
We also discussed things like what it means when "puddles" begin to form on your paper. (too much water!) and that if something is going to be white, you need to not add color at all!
Just like there is "no crying in baseball", there is no white in watercolors. This joke goes right over most of the kids' heads and I'll probably feel really old realizing it also goes over most of the parent's heads too as they were probably their children's ages when this Tom Hanks moving came out....
9 year old
10 year old
By the time the kids were finished with their works, I think they all had a good idea of what they wanted to do on the silk and also what they wanted to do differently. Along with realizing you don't need to take the color right to the edge since it will "travel" there for you, they also understood implicitly that a little bit of color goes a long way. Something very important to understand when working on the silk.
4 year old
But most important, this is a fun project. The kids love the liquid watercolors just as much as I do and these types of paintings seem to always end with a 'wow' factor. As they were hanging on the wall to dry, the morning parents each "oooh'd and ahhhh'd" over the pieces and I know the artists' parents were almost as excited as the kids with the final works.
Can't say I blame them one bit.
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