Watercolor Art

A while ago I wanted to pick up a new hobby that I could do with the kids. My husband has always loved watercolor painting! He likes to paint scenery and I wanted to do more graphic pop art. I also thought it would be a fun family activity. My oldest Daughter has always loved art, so I knew she would take to it right away and sure enough both my girls were loving watercolor painting. Now that we have experimented with it a bit we realize that it's something we all love and a great way for us to connect as a family and get our creative juices flowing. We pulled out the watercolors just the other day to create some fun Valentine's Day decor. We love our finished products! Here are my tips for getting started with watercolors.

1. You don't need expensive paints. Honestly for kids the crayola watercolors are great.  

2. Brushes and Paper are more important. HobbyLobby has some pretty good options and DickBlick has some amazing products if you are really loving this hobby and can spend a little more money. 

3. You need two jars of water. I like to use Mason jars. One is your clean water to use for activating the watercolors and the second is your cleaning water for when you want to clean and switch colors. 

4. Use warm to hot water in your jars, it will keep your brushes nice. 

5. Get a large plastic palette to mix colors in. 

Have fun and experiment a lot, let colors run together, use more water or less, use white to mix with to get those pretty pastels, and don't forget you can let paint on your palette dry and re activate it with water, that way you don't lose all that hard work it took to mix those perfect colors. Also try to mix colors you know you will love. You will be so much happier with the finished product! 

Happy Painting! Tag me on instagram if you try this!

- The Mommy