Watercolor and Pastel Valentines – ARTBAR
This weekend I was inspired by one of the prompts in our February Creativity Project guide, appropriately named Friendship and centered around love, kindness, and connection. The prompt is a simple invitation with watercolors and pastels, and the possibilities are endless.
These hearts are channeling a little Jim Dine, who explored relationships of color, texture and composition through the heart shape.
Supplies for Watercolor and Pastel Valentines:
~ Watercolor paper (I stock 90lb 18 X 24 paper that I can cut down when needed)
~ Pencil
~ Watercolors (any kind will work, I used acryla-guache paints that are in tubes but you can use regular palette watercolors)
~ Paint brush and glass of water
How to make Watercolor and Pastel Valentines:
1. Cut your paper down if you need to. I had big sheets that I measured out and tore using a big ruler. My final size is about 4 X 5 inches.
2. Sketch a heart on each card with a pencil.
3. Paint your hearts. I played around with using colors in the same family (blue/green, pink/red, red/orang) and also contrasting colors (yellow/purple, red/green).
4. When they are dry (you may need to bend them to flatten, they can curl when drying) use chalk pastels on top to highlight and brighten parts of the heart and background. I liked using highlights and then darker shades to make the hearts feel 3-dimentional.
This watercolor + chalk pastel concept can be even more open-ended for younger children. Just set out bigger paper with the watercolors and let them paint whatever they choose. Then bring out the chalk pastels when dry and let them explore adding more color on top.
xo Bar
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Did you like this post? Here are more homemade Valentine ideas:
Cereal Box Cardboard Hearts
Simple Watercolor Hearts
Valentines for the Class