DESIGN SKILLS TO LEARN:
- drawing with willow vine charcoal and painting with watercolor: willow vine charcoal is a natural product made of carbonized twigs.
- drawing a landscape vignette within a rectangle
MATERIALS: (SEE ART TOOLS IN MENU FOR DETAILS + LINKS)
- watercolor sketchbook or two pieces of watercolor paper
- card-stock or other heavy paper cut to 3″ x 4″
- pencil
- eraser
- vine charcoal (other options: black watercolor pencil or black color pencil)
- watercolor paint pan
- small, medium, large watercolor brushes
- krylon satin finish spray (other option: hair spray)
- black felt tip marker
STEP NO.1
- watch the demos for an overview of the project and then follow written steps below
step no.2
- cut seven 3″ x 4″ rectangles out of card-stock
- arrange rectangles on your sketchbook pages
- trace rectangles with a pencil
STEP NO.3
- draw biome landscape vignettes in rectangles with a pencil
- keep the landscapes simple for the next step
STEP NO.4
- trace over your simple landscape drawings with vine charcoal
- vine charcoal is thick: use a soft hand to trace (you can use a black water color pencil or a black color pencil as another option)
- one of my children disliked the feeling of the vine charcoal …. rubber gloves to the rescue!
- smaller children might find the vine charcoal challenging. have them try their best. this type of painting has a very abstract look and the watercolor turns a messy charcoal drawing into a beautiful piece of art! switch to watercolor pencil if it’s just too much for them.
- use paper to cover the drawings you are not working on so they don’t smudge (see blue glove photo below)
STEP NO.5
- watercolor your biomes!
- see demos for instructions
STEP NO.6
- erase unwanted charcoal smudges with a large eraser
- spray with krylon satin finish spray OUTSIDE …. this stuff is strong (other option: hair spray)
- label with black marker
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