Watercolor Crayon Resist Painting

One of the most interesting things about crayon resist painting with toddlers is that you can surprise them with images popping up from, what appears to be, an empty page! Today we painted using watercolors over crayon resist images, mostly spring and Easter themed, like flowers, eggs, and, of course, we had to add some hearts!

Painting is an easy art activity most toddlers enjoy very much, including my 3-year-old daughter! She loves to paint and get messy no matter which art medium we use!

Materials and tools for watercolor resist painting

For this simple painting technique, we used:

• watercolors,
• water and brush,
• paper, and
• a white crayon.

How to make a watercolor resist painting?

Since I have a toddler I prepared in advance several sheets of paper and draw different images over with white crayon. I tried to give her white crayon to do it herself, but she kept saying that she doesn’t want to draw with white crayon because nothing shows on paper. So I had to draw it myself to show her how it will appear after painting. Kind of magic!

Once you draw images using white crayon, let the toddler paint over it using watercolors. Have to say that biggest problem if your toddler never used watercolors before, will be to get them to use enough water, or better said, just enough water. But with a little practice, they will get it fast.

I explained to my little girl to first use lighter, more watered paint to find the images that were hidden on the paper, and then to paint those images. She discovered some Easter eggs on one of the paper, on other hearts were hidden and on the third she found flowers.

If you have a preschooler or an older child, you can get them to do the white crayon drawings by themselves, or even exchange papers with secret drawings and reveal them by painting over.

For Little Artists!

Here are few recommendation for next project!

The Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! Activity Pad 4-Pack features themed watercolor books (Pets, Colors, Fairy Tale, Makeup) that each include 4 reusable pages and come with a refillable water pen. Perfect to take along when you are on the go with a toddler and don’t want unnecessary mess that usually comes with art activities. Find here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom

For preschoolers, we recommend watercolor painting book with color pallette on the side, like the one on the picture. Each page comes with 6 squares dry set of paint colors, all it requires is providing a tiny bit of water for them to dip the brush in. There is no concern about wasted paint, or storing leftover paint. Low mess, high engagement, takes up very little space. Find here: United States

WHAT ELSE CAN YOUR KIDS DO IN SPRING?

Here are few additional Spring ideas for those of you who collect egg cartons in a recycle bin:

• turn egg carton into flower bed for your spring garden with flowers made also from egg cartons,
• use it to make a fun egg racing game (you will also need plastic eggs to make game pieces),
• plant carrots in an egg carton to practice fine motor skills.

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