Trees of Orange... Gold... and Blue? - Easy Watercolor Project

One of the girls' trees!

Trees of Orange... Gold... and Blue? - Easy Watercolor Project

A bonus project for the art curriculum this week!

This is a simple project to prep for, I gathered and planned most of it this morning right before putting it into action.

The final result is so charming it's suitable for all ages: colorful and fun for younglings; sophisticated and lovely for any modern decor.

What you need:

-watercolors (it doesn't need to be expensive, we have large bottles of brilliantly colored kids watercolors)
-multipurpose paper
-brushes (cheap, but not plastic, plastic doesn't hold water)
-spray bottle
-paint palettes or bowls/cups to hold the paint

We did two pieces. The first one was just to get the technique down and play with colors.

We all used the same 3 colors: blue, red, orange. You can use whatever (and however many) colors you desire.

Time: 45 minutes for Both pieces

• Thoroughly soak your brush in the first color
• Hover the brush over the paper and use your finger on your other hand to tap and splatter the paint - don't be shy when splattering! Cover the page with blobs and splatters of all different sizes!
• Rinse your brush and move on to the next color and repeat with all the different colors.

• Now the super fun part! Take the spray bottle and spritz those colors! Take it slow at first, it'll depend on the amount of paint on your paper and how thickly you spray the water as to how the colors will run and retain their vibrancy. When it comes to adding water to watercolors, less is more.
  
• For fun, we added salt to our first masterpieces. The more salt you add, the less bold your colors will be. However it creates some fantastic texture.

Left half "After Spritzing"
Right half "After Salt"

• The second piece we made trees. I drew light, rough ovals on the paper as a guide for the kids. We used the same colors: blue, red, orange. And we were only allowed to splatter within the oval as best we could.
• Spritz with water!
• We manage to direct the dribbles by tilting and bending the paper so we ended up with tree trunks!
  

Overall: Fun. Easy. Prepare for speckled faces and arms from the splattering. I suggest a good layer of newspaper on the table to help with easy cleanup and spills. :)

Related art projects:

-Perspective With Watercolors
-Watercolor Winter Scene
-Expressions in Color

(logging 1 1/2 hours for prep and execution)