Most Popular Pin - Watercolor Techniques from Deep Space Sparkle

Everyday my email is bombarded with Pinterest telling me so and so repinned one of my pins. The most popular pin I have on Pinterest is one I pinned 10 weeks ago from a blog I read called Deep Space Sparkle. It is an art teacher's blog. She shares different assignments she had done with her classes. I have used many of these assignments with my kids.  But I haven't done the lesson on Watercolor techniques which is obviously so popular. I think I receive at least 15+ emails a day saying my pin was repinned. So I figured it was time to actually use this pin and do the assignment with my kids.

I didn't get my camera out until the lesson was almost over. I guess I wasn't thinking of blogging this lesson until it was well under way.   I had the kids draw the 6 blocks on their papers. Ian was very exact and got out a ruler. Sophie free handed hers, I believe, and Henry got all upset when his free hand ones didn't look as good as mine. Molly just painted what ever she wanted on her sheet.

 I told the kids to wait for instruction for each block. Sophie and Ian did very well with this but Henry just barged ahead and painted without being fully informed of what was expected in each block and then would get mad when it wasn't right.  I guess there is a reason she listed this assignment as 6th grade.

 In each of the 6 blocks the were to use a different technique to use when painting with watercolors.

 Here is my finished assignment.

 Here is Ian's page

 Here is Sophie's sheet.

I think it would really help if we had actual watercolor paper. I just used my slightly heavier weight art paper and it just didn't do as well as I had hoped. When It got wet it wrinkled up.

 But here is Sophie's square for salting.

 We couldn't quite figure out what rubbing alcohol was supposed to do other than leave spots. Perhaps with more pigment and the right paper it would have done better.

Henry didn't end up even finishing the assignment with us. He got frustrated with every little thing. I guess it was just a cranky morning for him. I thought this would be a fun activity for them but it was a lesson in frustration for him.

This was labeled Watercolor Techniques - a 6th grade experiment. It certainly was an experiment. I know now to have good supplies on hand. Real watercolor paper would be a big improvement. And I didn't have a lot of color choices of liquid watercolors so we ended up getting out the trays of crayola dry watercolors. They just don't work as well either. So yes this was an experiment. I learned a few things and my older kids certainly enjoyed trying out some different things.  More than anything they just enjoy painting. Breaking out othe art supplies is almost always a hit around here!