Watercolor Art Project – Tips & Techniques

Watercolor Art Starters

One of the most popular craft activities right now is watercolor painting! Our Watercolor Art Starters to appeal to a broad range of ages and abilities. The pack comes with 4 different timeless designs; feathers, seashells, ice cream, and flowers. Each design is printed lightly in a soft grey ink to look like a pencil sketch drawing. That way you don’t have to start with a “blank canvas”, but can have the flexibility and fun of personalizing it with different colors and styles! They are printed on 8″x8″ watercolor paper, and the finished craft can be framed easily.

Watercolor Supplies:

• Watercolor Art Starters
• Watercolor Paint
• Water-based Markers
• Watercolor Colored Pencils 
• Paintbrush
• Fine Point Permanent Marker (for outlining)
• Water

Here is a video showing our watercolor techniques for the feather design!

Watercolor Techniques & Tips

There are many different techniques and materials you can use for watercolor projects. I used several different ones for these Art Starters, and each creates it’s own unique design. Here are some options:

• Wet paper + watercolor: Wet the paper first, then add watercolor. This will create a more pastel and blended look. (Ex.1)
• Dry paper + watercolor: If you start with dry paper and then add watercolor, you will get a darker color and bolder brush strokes (Ex.2)
• Marker + water: You can use water based markers to get a similar effect as watercolor. This allows some different color options that you may not have on your watercolor pallette. It also gives you better control over your color placement. (Ex.3)
• Marker + watercolor + water: By using a mixture of watercolor and water based markers, you can create your own colors and have fun with the design. (Ex.4)
• Watercolor pencils (or crayons) + water: Use a water based colored pencil to shade and/or outline the design. You can then go over the colored areas with water and a paintbrush for blending. (Ex.5)

Keep in mind, the color intensity will also depend on water to color ratio. The more water you use, the lighter and more pastel it will look. Another important thing to remember with watercolor painting is that it’s perfectly fine to paint “outside the lines”. The faint gray lines are merely there to add subtle definition to the artwork.

Here are some great examples of the different types of watercolor techniques:

Finishing Tips

• Once your project is dry, outline the project with a fine point permanent marker
• Add glitter, sticky gems, pom poms, etc for accents
• Write a quote underneath the design. For example, “Life is Sweet” for the ice cream project.
• You can even cut out each of the shapes and use them as gift tags or even ornaments