Painting wolves with watercolor @WBCL

Last night we painted wolves in the Arts & crafts session. I found a nice picture of a pack of wolves that were not all snarling and printed it on watercolor paper. We did something a bit different by enhancing the lines with scribbles of black or brown color pencil then doing the watercolor using internet photos as a color reference. I would love to try this with watercolor pencils sometime but it really got everyone thinking of where to put their darker and lighter colors. Of course there are a few wolves of a different color and several of the older kids decided that a colored sky was essential.

Colors across Texas day 1 art mini-camp

We learned a bit about west Texas today and drew Monument rock to paint with thick acrylics. We used some texture paint and the kids learned to pounce in the background rocks using several colors randomly. They used pallet knives to paint the rock itself and the foreground sandy area. Some made theirs darker and some lighter but all were really good.

We also drew a cluster of cactus on watercolor paper to paint. The boys didn't want flowers on theirs but I think they put on the buds. I think most kids are not used to painting with water first then putting in the watery paints but have the "oh wow" reaction when they can see the paints move and mix. This one also turned out really good.

Watercolor painting fall leaves @WBCL

 Watercolors are always fun to do because of the oh wow factor. I sometimes worry a bit when I get the much younger children in the class How they'll do but as usual they had a fantastic time creating this project. They even learned how to shade the edges of the leaves and scribe in the veins. Initially I had planned to have them trace their leaves onto the paper but decided that it would be better if I did that part and they did the painting part. We went over having a Clear water brush and cup and a color painting brush. First I had them paint one leaf with water then get a bit of the color and trace around the outside at. Sometimes they didn't do the same leaf that they had put water on requiring a quick fix to help the paint spread. It didn't take long before everybody had it figured out. Palette knives were in short supply last night so we used a number of other items like Spoon handle's and scissor edges scribe our leaves. What a great job they did.