Kids Art: Waterecolor and Cling Wrap

Continuing the theme of art projects we did recently, here is another.

I was browsing for simple activities with stunning results that can be easily done at home during the Winter Holidays and came across this. I had to try it with Ana.

Items Used: Watercolor paper, Acrylic paper, diluted tempera paints or watercolors, large paint brush, and plastic cling wrap.

1. Simply apply blobs of color on heavy-weight paper.
2. Place a Cling Wrap sheet on top while still wet, and crinkle it to form patterns.
3. Allow to dry.
4. Remove the cling wrap.
5. Voilà!

We left it by the heating vent, of course, to speed up drying. And proudly showed it to Appa when he got home!

Heavy-weight paper works best, and, the nature and quality of the paper makes a difference, as we would expect. Acrylic paper had a more smooth finish with fractal-like formations.



Whereas, Watercolor paper had a coarse textured look with an interesting cracked crystalline pattern.



Usually, I talk about interesting things we could try with materials at home to gauge Ana's interest on any particular day. And, when she zooms in on one, I try to describe the steps first. Typically, I keep it to 4 or 5 steps. Ask her what she thinks the result of such a process would be.

When she expresses readiness to try it out, I assemble the materials, describing them, repeating the names of materials that are new to her. Sometimes I demo the technique/method that she seems to have trouble with. If possible, I show her pictures of the process and finished results to help her work independently.

I showed her the finished results from the web for this project early in the day and talked about it to her and told her that when she is ready to choose that activity, she can help me assemble the materials. It worked like a charm. I didn't have to wait too long before she put away Enid Paapaa and her clothes and was ready to start.

And, as usual, we weren't satisfied with doing just one, so we created a few, playing with colors and textures, some of which weren't as stunning as the others as we found out. But then, 'stunning' is quite subjective anyway :)

[cross-posted at The Joy Of My Life]