I had a go at the Waldorf approach to watercolour painting a good while back here with mixed results (too early for Boo I think). Now that she's constantly trying out colour-mixing with her other art media, and with my having had a little instruction on the method at a recent parents evening at Boo's Waldorf preschool (rather psychedelic results below....), I thought the time was nigh to have another go.
Preparation is important; you need to lay out the materials so that the child understands that they must clean their brush in the water and dry on the rag between applications of different colours. We used Stockmar watercolours in the 3 primaries; an ultramarine, crimson and golden yellow. You can experiment with cobalt blue, scarlet red and a more lemon yellow as well to see which create the best results. You need a good quality watercolour paper. Ours was not really up to scratch and the results were rather more muddy than need be. The paper needs to be soaked in water in the sink prior to painting, and the excess water sponged off with a natural sponge, leaving the paper wet but without puddles or bubbles. It's also really worthwhile investing in a good quality watercolour (sable hair) wide short-handled brush.
I laid the paints out.
Boo seemed to take readily to the procedure of using the water and rag between colours.
And she was off...
After this painting, Boo decided that the crayons were coming out.
As we had the watercolours out, I suggested that Boo apply some paint over the top to create a wax resist. She was fascinated by the method.
I'm not posting pics of the dried watercolour paintings because I found them a little disappointing due to the muddiness, pointing to the need for a heavier grade, rougher watercolour paper. I've bought some quality stuff now, so when I get a chance we'll give it another whirl and hopefully our results will be more durable.
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