Warm & Cool Colors Handprint Pattern Watercolor & Crayon Resist Painting
2nd-5th Grade Art Handprint Pattern (Rhythm) Crayon & Watercolor Resist
Teaching the principles of art to elementary students can sometimes be a challenge, especially the younger students. Coupling the lesson with examples of rhythm in music and rhythm in poetry helps make audible connections to the concept. So when presenting a lesson on pattern, repetition, and rhythm find good music & poetry examples to begin the lesson with. I had them practice making patterns. We also learned about warm and cool colors in this lesson.
Who doesn’t love watching the “magic” happen when you paint watercolors over crayons! I LOVE it-
Watercolor and crayon resist paintings are among my favorite art projects! It is also a good cross-curriculum lesson with Science and Art. Oil & water don’t mix and we see a perfect visual example of this when we paint watercolors over the crayons. This is a fun mixed-media lesson!!
Supplies: pencils, 12×18″ Tagboard, crayons or oil pastels (in warm colors), Watercolor paints, brushes, Optional: Basic Watercolor Techniques Lesson & Worksheet, Color Wheel Worksheet or Warm & Cool colors Worksheet
Instructions:
- Have children trace their hands 5-7 times in pencil on a sheet of 12×18″ tag-board or watercolor paper. Younger kids may need help, I encouraged them to do it on their own, but if they really needed help then they could ask their partner to draw only one or two hands.
Outline Hands 5-7 times on a 12×18″ piece of tag-board
- Students trace all their hands in different warm colored crayons (red, orange, yellow & intermediate colors too). Make sure they are drawing THICK lines-this helps in the resist process.
- Next, draw patterns using only warm colored crayons. Encourage them to make a new pattern in each hand.
Draw different patterns in each hand using WARM colors.
Handprint with Warm Color Pattern
There are many options to the next part. I am including pictures of samples I have made experimenting with different backgrounds. The important part is to incorporate the COOL colors into the background somehow. Cool colors are green, blue, & purple (with their intermediate colors). The black background is India Ink.
Hand Print Resist with Cool Background
Hand Print Resist Black with Cool Background
If you choose to use this lesson or to repost it (written info or photos), please link it back to my blog. Create Art with ME
Additional Watercolor Lessons:
Seahorse Warm & Cool Color Watercolor Painting
Basic Watercolor Techniques Lesson Plan & Worksheet
Basic Watercolor Lesson
St. Basil Watercolor Painting Lesson
Additional Watercolor & Crayon Resist Lessons:
Sand Dollar Pattern Watercolor Resist Lesson
Snowman Painting with Markers & Watercolor Resist
Non-Objective Texture Rubbing & Watercolor Resist
What a really cool art idea! I hope to entice my son into trying it out someday soon…
I also hope to share this idea in future with my parenting page fans on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ConsciousParentingApproach. I invite you to come say Hello to us too – see you there! 🙂
What a great project – thanks, Michelle! I plan to use this with my 5th and 6th grade students. We begin each year with a unit on color and I want the first lessons to be approachable and fun. This will be a new way to talk about warm and cool colors. I’m sure that using the resist will create lots of art excitement!
Great idea! Could you do the same lesson with Tempra paint?
If the tempera paint was pretty watery/runny, it would probably work (but then you start to lose vibrancy of color). It would be more likely to work if oil pastels were used instead of crayons. I have done a similar project with oil pastels & tempera “cakes” and that worked well. Have fun creating!!
Black Tempura could also be used for black background.
It also becomes a fun, cooperative activity if children trace each others’ hands.
Can this work in a canvas?
It might work on watercolor canvas since that is designed to absorb water media. On a regular primed canvas paint sits on top of the canvas. You could try it with oil pastels & really watered down acrylic paint. Let me know what you find! Art should be an experiment!