Easy Watercolour Art Lesson for Kids

Learn how to paint a sunflower using watercolour and crayon resist. This easy art lesson includes a step-by-step tutorial and free lesson download.

How to Paint a Sunflower Art Lesson:

This project takes advantage of a simple, straight-forward look at a large sunflower, is drawn with crayons and painted with watercolour. The crayon lines not only add a nice texture, they keep the paint colours from running together too.

Sunflowers in Art: From Van Gogh to the Classroom:

In the late 1800s, Vincent van Gogh had painted a series of well known sunflower paintings. To bring them into relief he painted them using thick and swirly brushstrokes as well as yellow paint. He painted them because we always associated them with feeling happy and with friendship and even painted some of them to decorate his friend room! It became known as his impasto style as the paint was of the consistency of icing. Even though this project is of working with watercolours, instead of oil-based paints, it does not imply that students cannot be bold with their tints and make their petals look as full of life and emotion van Gogh did.

Materials Needed:

• Watercolour paints

• Watercolour paper (or thick paper)

• Brushes (different sizes if possible)

• A cup of clean water

• A cloth or tissue for drying the brush

• Perfection is not what to be concerned with and allow kids to paint freely.
• Give them positive praise of their art.
• Hang their paintings on the walls and displays in classroom to raise confidence.
• Have more tissues on the side in case of spills (kid love messy- fun)!

A pencil (to sketch light).

2. Wet the Paper 💧

Put the brush into clean water and slightly dampen the portion of material on which they would like to paint. This is referred to as the wet-on-wet method. It smoothens the blending of the colours.

3. Add the First Colour 🎨

Choose one bright colour and gently spread it on the wet paper. Show children how the colour spreads like magic. This always excites them!

4. You can combine colours 🌟

Make kids experiment combining two colour (such as blue and yellow to produce green).   made

5. Layering Technique :

When the initial layer is dry, put more details. As an example, paint a light blue kind of sky and add the darker clouds later after that has dried.

Once the painting is dry, children can outline with a black marker or can add some small details such as stars, grass, or patterns.

Advantages of Watercolour Painting by Kids

• Builds creativity and imagination

• Teaches colour recognition and mixing

• Improves fine motor skills

• Encourages patience and focus

• Boosts confidence when they see their finished artwork

Sunflowers Painting Tips:

For your best results, I recommend working with real watercolour paper, and liquid watercolour paints. The bright, textured colour that you see in my sample is purely thanks to that combination. Put a few drops on a make-up brush or directly on your eyes as it is and get giant eyes, or dilute it with a little water to make it lighter. Either way, the colours stay nice and true and it’s easy to paint a background without constantly mixing the right amount of water with a tablet in a try.

One last tip — when making the initial drawing with a pencil, encourage students to draw extra, extra light. Yellow and orange crayons are a bit transparent, so dark grey pencil lines will show through if the lines are too heavy. This is the project to work on light sketching skills, which are always helpful, and can really make this sunflower painting shine (pun intended!).

Preview of the Step by Step Tutorial:

Template List of Materials:

Directions:

More Fun Flower Projects: