Hoot. Hoot.
You and your kids can create the sweetest owls!
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| Watercolor Owl. Artist: age 6 |
We have all heard how valuable experience with art is for growing minds but most of us feel unsure how we can give creative experience to our children. Probably our own inner artist's were not nurtured when we were young. Time to remedy that! It turns out it's easy to make space in family life for creative expression (for everyone! parents included!) if you take it step by step.Watch as my kindergarten class jumps in.
You'll need:
2 pieces white paper to do some warm up drawing
1 piece thick white paper
(preferable watercolor paper, size 8.5" x 11" is perfect)
Sharpened pencil
Permanent marker
Watercolor
Paintbrush
Water in a cup!
Step 1: Practice your shapes!
Warm up drawing.
Use the examples here to create a warm up sheet for your kids. Encourage them to repeat shapes until they feel confident with them. The more they practice the better they will feel about their work!
Step 2: Draw your owl! Grab your pencil, watercolor paper and go!
You (and your child) will be drawing on watercolor paper with a pencil to start.
1.
Begin with the owl's body, an upside-down "U".2. Add a line across the middle to separate head and body. Now you have a rounded "A".
3. Zig-zag across the bottom of the "A" for feathers.
4. Add circles for eyes - nice and large.
5. Smaller circles are added inside for pupils.
6.*Encourage your child to keep going - not to stop and perfect the picture too much.
7. Between and below the eyes add a diamond beak.
8-9. Add a triangle for the ears.
10-11. Add half circle wings.
12-13. Add 2 lines for each leg.
14-15 .Add 3 lines for each toe.
16. Looking great!
17. Optional: You may add a branch for your owl to sit on/
18. Add branches or leaves.
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| Watercolor Owl - beautiful color mixing! |
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| Look at the amazing expression on this owl! |
Step 4: Watercolor!
Before you begin, please remember (and remind your child) that watercolor is a very fluid and changeable material. Happy accidents occur all the time. There are no mistakes in art! As you go, listen to your child. They often tell stories about their art as they create it. And they love to know what you think about your art!
1. Prep your watercolors by adding a drop or two of water to each circle of dry paint. Mix each drop of water in and then rinse the brush. This is the first key to successful water color use -- make sure you and your child are using enough water!
2. Encourage your child to stop a moment and really appreciate and observe the owl they have created. As you can see from my kindergarten class, each one really has it's own personality.
3. Now comes the creative expression, invite your child to paint each different part of his/her owl with a different color. Make sure to rinse and wet the brush each time you return for more paint.
4. What about the sky - is it morning? Evening? Is it night? Encourage your child to decide.
5. Name your owls and when they are dry display them. Share them!
As you can see from the amazing owls posted here -- variety is the spice of life! There is no "right" or "wrong" way to do a project like this. Techniques can be improved with practice. But as parents and teachers, our practice has to be encouraging our children to be true to their own inner voices -- and supporting them with whatever emerges onto the paper.
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| One happy owl (with glasses!) |
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| Owl with a perfect (accidental!) pink feather on her head |
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| Sleepy Owl with wild, confident painting! |
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| Little Owl on a branch |
