If you love watercolor as much as me, you might be looking for the best watercolor projects to teach your students.
I’ve done hundreds over the years and my favorites always have one or more of the following techniques:
- Waterproof marker as a precise drawing medium
- Non-water soluble oil pastel or waxy crayon to act as a resist and/or barrier
- Wet-on-wet technique for color blending
- Salting for a magical touch
Watch this video as I walk you through each technique in this pretty Fall Art Project:
You can practice these techniques without doing a lesson. Introducing simple techniques as an experiment allows children to experience the techniques first and then they can use them in their own work.
The October Freebie pack is chock full of Fall themed lessons, drawing guides, technique tips and video tutorials. Download this handy drawing guide before you get started:
How to Use the 4 Watercolor Techniques in a Fall Leaves Art Project
Give each student a 9″ x 12″ @ 90 lb watercolor paper. Regular sulphite paper doesn’t work as well as the watercolor paints will soak into the paper reducing the effectiveness of the wax resist, wet-on-wet and salting. BUT using a waterproof marker does work well.
Children should have access to a waterproof black marker (I like Sharpies), non-water soluble oil pastels or waxy crayons and some watercolor paint (either pan or liquid is great). Here’s a post on the watercolor brands I like.
Additional projects you might like to try:
Watercolor Tulips
Notre Dame Cathedral Project
Technique #1: Waterproof Marker
- With a waterproof black marker, draw a simple leaf shape.
- Carefully paint inside the shape with watercolor paints.
When to use this technique: When you want a strong, detailed line for an intricate drawing. For a leaf drawing, the waterproof marker creates thin, detailed lines.
Technique #2: Wax Resist
- With a wax crayon or oil pastel, draw a simple lead shape.
- Add in lines or details with oil pastel or crayon colors.
- Paint over the entire drawing with one color of paint.
- What happens to the lines?
When to use this technique: When you want to add colorful or white line details to a drawing and add a splash of color over top but not have the watercolor paint cover the details.
When you want to paint the background and don’t want the leaf color to bleed into the background color.
Technique #3: Wet-on-wet
- With a brush dipped in water, paint over a section of paper.
- Select a color of paint and brush over the top of the wet section.
- Select another color and dab onto wet surface.
- What happens when the paint merges?
This technique is fun for kids to see as the watercolor often spreads like a star and mingle with any color getting in its way. It’s also a great time to explain the scientific properties of water.
When to use this technique: The best time for this technique is when you want watercolor paints to mingle, creating a new color OR when you are painting a large background area. Kids tend to paint on dry paper which can be very streaky. Adding water to the paper first, softens their natural tendency to paint in uneven amounts.
The finished products looks pretty cool.
Technique #4: Salting
- With a brush dipped in water, paint over a section of paper.
- Select a color of paint and brush over the top of the wet section.
- Before a paint dries, sprinkle table salt over paint.
- What happens when the salt dries?
There are a few things that MUST be done in order to achieve a pretty starburst effect with salting:
You must use translucent watercolor paints. Cake or puck tempera paints or heavy opaque watercolor paints might be too heavy for the salt.
You must also give the salt and watercolor a chance to work by using watercolor paper. If the paint soaks into the paper before the salt has had a chance to take effect, nothing much will happen.
So use translucent watercolors (I LOVE liquid watercolors) and watercolor paper.
It’s awesome video on learning the water techniques in such a kids relatable art project . Thanks
Thank you Veena!
The link in my email for the October Freebie Pack does not appear to be working. Can you look into it and send it to me again? I’d really love to have this resource for my students. Thank you so much!
I just downloaded the freebie pack but it sends an error and can not be opened. <3
I am also getting an error code……thank you so much for this WONDERFUL freebie pack !!
Love your projects!
Would love to do this with my students; unfortunately, the link is not working on your website. Are these guides in the Sparklers Member site?
Thanks
Can you try again? This October PDF is not part of The Sparklers Club 🙂
love it! thanks 🙂
Love!!!
Great teaching ideas for my class!
I love it!
Terrific!
Love the leaf example.
Thank you for this wonderful freebie!
Love this leaf project!
Your program is awesome, Thanks for the great ideas!
omg awesomejdgiyfdfdjsh
i have recently discovered you on line and i cant thank you enough for brightening up my life!
i teach art after school club and i prepare my own lessons i do have an art background. i decided to use one of yours this week ( i’m teaching on line due to corona virus lock down) i also bought your book on amazon . so i used funky cat this week, as last week i did a whole project on pattern so i asked them to make sure they put lots of pattern around eg the collar, in the background i asked them to do circles and in each circle to add different pattern . One girl added a briefcase as i told her her cat looked like it was going to the office! I’ve been doing this for approx 4 years now. ( since i had a huge change in circumstances not in a good way ) but i thought it might be refreshing to do other peoples lessons too ( my first time). i’m now a huge fan . Thank you so much .Not that you need to see my work/ projects but i’m happy to share some of my ideas with you too . Deborah x
a fabulous lesson to be used by students of various ages and skill level. The watercolor techniques can be used in a variety of art projects with varying subject matters.
Hello,
Could I possibly get a copy of the 4 watercolor techniques handout that accompanies the watercolor leaves project sent to me? Super video!
I am so thankful for you! You offer so much, everything is beautiful, simple to put together and teach, and absolutely something kids have fun doing… not to mention, they are proud of the product! Also, you give so much out for free! Thank you, thank you, thank you! (Lots of exclamation marks in this post!)
These lessons for October are amazing.
These are perfect for first time homeschooling art projects!
Great ideas!! Thank you for posting them!!!
Lindisimo, gracias desde Lima Peru
The salting looks like so much fun! Magic!
This is perfect! I would love a PDF.
Love it and can’t wait to teach these 4 watercolor techniques to my four grandchildren in their next homeschool art class.
Do you think a 45 minutes class would be enough time to do teach Folk Art trees to students, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades? Thanks
Its a very quick project. If you demonstrate each type of tree, it could take longer than 45-minutes, but if you pass along teh handout and demo 1-2 tree style, I think the kids will do great!
Here’s a tip: anytime your class time is short, consider reducing paper size so kids draw or paint smaller. Makes a larger project more time doable 🙂
My favorite’s wet-on-wet.
I LOVE all the projects and ideas that are on this fabulous site. I teach grade 7 and 8 visual arts and while I often use many of the projects with this grade level, I am looking for the ‘next level’. Any ideas as to what to do or where to look?
Just did some watercolor leaves with my daughter today for her homeschool art class. It took us a little longer (she wanted to draw a maple leaf but couldn’t quite get it to look how she wanted it) but the result was so beautiful and she had fun learning the different techniques. I wasn’t sure I would like salting, but the salt gave the background the look of colorful little snowflakes and we loved it! We’ll probably do this again before fall is over now that she has learned which colors look better together. We also used oil pastel on one of my leaves for the veins and it looked really neat, so she wants to do that, too. Thank you for the wonderful lesson!
what paper is best for watercolors my studetns are using traditional dry watercolorsand they are not blending well looks like scrtches all over the page.
LOVE this! I am teaching my kids art at home. Thank yo ufor sharing.
M’encanta!!
love these lessons!!
video handout
Hi Terri! I’m not sure what you are looking for. If you want to download the freebie pack just add your name and email address to the box and we will send that to your inbox. If you aren’t seeing something else, please feel free to reach out to me at support@deepspacesparkle.com and I am happy to lend a hand.
Which 90 lb watercolor paper do you recommend?
Hi Sharon! The Creative Team here at Deep Space Sparkle typically uses Blick Essentials brand watercolor paper. This watercolor paper is ideal for light washes or perfecting watercolor techniques. It is also available in a variety of sizes. https://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-essentials-watercolor-pads/?fromSearch=%2Fsearch%2F%3Fsearchword%3D90%20lb%20watercolor%20paper
An awsome and inspiring video.
I like how this one lesson is loaded with valuable techniques. THANK YOU!
Sooooooo helpful and inspiring! Thank you x
This is wonderful and I can’t wait to try it with my art students.Can you tell me where to get the watercolor paper you use and where you get it? thank you sooo much!
Hi there! We suggest 90 lb. watercolor paper which can be purchased online at an art supply store like Blick or could be found in any local art or craft stores in your area. Happy painting!
I can’t wait to try these techniques!
I don’t mean to be annoying, but I think there’s a typo in this line. Just thought you might want to know. Thanks for sharing your projects!
With a wax crayon or oil pastel, draw a simple lead shape.
leaf