W is for Watercolor Painting - A to Z April Challenge

One of the subjects that Sophia and Olivia enjoy as part of homeschooling is art. Pinterest has many ideas for homeschoolers on its site; and there are quite a few project ideas that I've pinned to remember to come back to try at some point.

Sophia's finished watercolor painting.

A pin on Pinterest that led to Art Projects for Kids was one idea that I thought the girls would enjoy doing for art one afternoon.

The first step was to cut out a variety of geometric shapes (e.g., squares, triangles, octagons, circles). The girls arranged them on their piece of watercolor paper and traced them. They overlapped some of the shapes, and left some areas open.

Then they erased some lines to show which shape was over and under the other one(s).

The watercolor paper with the outlines of the shapes

as well as some of the shapes colored in with markers.

The next step was to select a variety of water-based markers that would bleed when water got on them.

Olivia coloring in one of the shapes.

They colored the various shapes and left the paper that didn't have any shape on it plain.

Sophia coloring in the shapes on her page.

Next, they took a paint brush and dipped it into water. They splattered it onto their page so the color would bleed and create different shades of colors as well as different organic shapes left by the water splotches.

Olivia shifting the paper so the colored water 

moves in a random pattern on the page.

The next step we did two different ways. With Olivia's painting (the first one we tried), she held the paper up and let the colored water move in a random pattern on her page.In this way, the colors blended with one another and created new shapes over the shapes she traced.

Olivia's watercolor painting in progress.

With Sophia's painting, she did not lift her paper. Rather, she splattered the water onto the page and then let the water move on its own. In areas where the water was pooling, she gently blew on it to move it around a bit.

Sophia's painting in progress.

The results are quite different depending on whether the paper was lifted or not.

Olivia's finished watercolor painting.

The next step is to let the pages dry overnight. Once they are dry, the girls will take Sharpie markers and trace the outlines of the geometric and organic shapes. The more shapes they trace, the more intricate and intriguing the finished product will be.