The best watercolors for children. How to choose watercolors for a child? Watercolor pencils and crayons

For many decades now, drawing has been considered in our country not only as a popular entertainment for children, but also as an obligatory exercise that contributes to the all-round development of a child. Painting with paints is included in the educational program, if not of kindergartens, then of any secondary schools and specialized art educational institutions.

However, such creativity cannot be called exclusively a child's prerogative, because watercolors have been used for many centuries by real artists to create world-famous masterpieces, so that a child can develop his skills even in adulthood.

What it is?

The composition of watercolors is actually not something completely stable, since this type of paint has existed for a good couple of millennia and has been known in various regions of the world, in each of which they used the ingredients that were at hand. It is possible that watercolors from different periods and corners of the world can radically differ in their components, however, in general, the name comes from the Latin word "aqua", that is, "water" - it was she who acted as the basis for all known compositions.

The dyes, respectively, also differed, because if today even synthetic substances can play this role, then earlier they used mainly powders of plant origin. For overall integrity, various types of natural glue were also added to the mixture, which allowed the substance to maintain a fairly thick consistency.

Wherein the watercolor mixture should remain pliable and soak easily when water is added, therefore, the addition of plasticizers is also mandatory. These are most often inverted sugar, as well as glycerin, the function of which is also to retain at least a small amount of water so that the watercolor does not turn into a real stone in the long breaks between uses.

The composition of watercolors would be incomplete without bovine bile - it contributes to the uniform smearing of the dye on the surface of the paper, since it does not have the property of rolling into droplets. Phenol or other similar antiseptics are also added to modern watercolor recipes to prevent mold and other destructive microorganisms from infecting naturally occurring ingredients.

The classic composition is completely devoid of any harmful components and is completely composed of a natural product, which contributes to the use of watercolors by children.

At the same time, in the modern world, manufacturers often use various synthetic analogs, which is why some types of paints can still be harmful. It is worth paying attention, first of all, to those paints on which it is directly indicated that they are designed for children.

As a rule, they are somewhat inferior in quality to professional mixtures, but their composition is selected in such a way as to be completely safe, and most importantly, suitable for daily use.

The widest distribution of watercolors is caused not only by the naturalness of its composition, but also by the variety of drawing techniques with it, each of which gives a unique result - even though the canvases are almost 100% limited by paper.

For example, in England it was customary to paint on paper that was heavily moistened with water, while in Italy, on the contrary, a completely dry canvas was used. Today, many artists successfully combine English and Italian techniques to achieve stunning transitions from one color to another.

The difference between the techniques also lies in how many layers of watercolor paint are placed on the paper. For example, technique A la Prima does not imply any subsequent corrections of the drawing - the paints are applied to the wet paper as quickly as possible, while the base has not dried, the masterpiece does not imply any subsequent changes. Thanks to this, a special iridescence of colors, an extremely delicate play of light and shadow, but for this the master must be able to draw very quickly and accurately.

However, there is also a multi-layer technique of watercolor painting, in which the upper strokes are superimposed on the already dried lower ones, and the shade does not necessarily coincide, but the upper stroke must be darker.

The variety of watercolor painting techniques does not end there, but even from the general description it becomes clear that this type of paint gives a lot of space for experiments and multi-level development.

History

Watercolors can be safely considered one of the most ancient inventions of mankind that have survived to this day, at least in creativity, so for sure. In fact, it is the same age as paper, which became more widespread after its invention in the 2nd century in China. In those days, it was actively used in traditional Chinese painting along with ink, but it differed from it in composition and offered a greater variety of colors, thanks to which it quickly gained popularity.

In Europe, by the way, some similar mixtures were also used, but at first they were used exclusively for calligraphy, and later, oddly enough, for cosmetic purposes.

If we talk about watercolors for painting in the modern sense, then for the first time it began to be used in Europe with the beginning of the mass distribution of paper in this part of the world.

In the Middle Ages, through Spanish and Italian ports, this Chinese invention entered the Old World, and began to increasingly replace ink. At the same time, painting as a whole already existed, but European artists of that time were much more active in using oil, which was better suited for canvases and wall painting.

Around the end of the Middle Ages, paper ceased to be a completely unprecedented rarity, and with it, new possibilities appeared for watercolors.

The first great artist to widely use watercolor in his masterpieces was German painter and graphic artist Albrecht Durer. His work titled The Hare, dating from 1502, is still considered one of the earliest examples of the use of watercolors in European painting to this day. The most interesting thing is that, in spite of everything, painting with watercolors for a very long time was considered a kind of daub, unworthy of attention, and even in the scientific works of the first half of the 19th century, devoted to the fine arts, watercolors are mentioned only in passing.

An extremely important role in the popularization of watercolors was played by the ease of use of this type of paint, thanks to which it was actively used already in the 18th century, but not by artists, but by travelers and scientists to illustrate what they saw on their travels, glorify landscapes and demonstrate new or unusual animals.

Soon, watercolor paints began to be widely used for portrait painting, whose popularity was growing rapidly, and although a new invention, photography, began to overshadow it in a few decades, the popularity of watercolors was started.

They were the first to appreciate the advantages of water-based paints in England, where watercolor gained popularity at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and here they somewhat expanded the arsenal of drawing techniques with it.

Throughout the 19th century, the attitude towards watercolor painting changed several times, since some of the new shades developed by enthusiasts proved to be short-lived, but in general, it was this century that became a turning point, and watercolor finally found itself among other types of "serious" painting, which was facilitated by, in particular, and such geniuses as Paul Cezanne.

The tradition of watercolor painting came to Russia from England through St. Petersburg and quickly gained serious popularity.

There are a number of renowned 19th century artists who paid tribute to their work with watercolors. Among them are Karl Bryullov, and Ilya Repin, and Mikhail Vrubel, and Valentin Serov, and even Maximilian Voloshin, who personally drew illustrations for his poetic works.

In the last century, watercolor has finally entered into widespread use in our country, becoming a way of realizing inspiration not only for adults, but also for children.

Today, no one doubts that watercolor is a serious artistic medium, although the simplest children's kits can give only a superficial idea of ​​its capabilities. Nevertheless, teaching children to paint with watercolors can give amazing results in the future, and it is possible that November 23 - International Watercolor Day - will someday become a professional holiday for them.

Properties

An important requirement for watercolor is considered particularly thorough grinding of dry pigment particles. Due to this, the paint applied in a thin layer looks translucent, which is generally a characteristic phenomenon for watercolor painting, in fact, this is what makes watercolor different from other types of paints.

Uniformity of application very important for paints of any type: it is unacceptable that watercolors collect in droplets or leave lumps on paper, which is often the case with a variety of cheap children's honey sets.

In the classic recipe, bovine bile is responsible for this characteristic of the mixture, however, in many budget options of our time, this ingredient is not present, which completely deprives the owner of the opportunity to write real masterpieces.

Lightfastness- another fundamental point for watercolors. Precisely because many of the new shades invented by English watercolors of the 19th century turned out to be easily fading in the sun, the future of watercolors was almost threatened: a significant part of society at that time began to lean towards the point of view that watercolors were too short-lived. to consider them a complete tool for creating paintings.

Fortunately, this problem was overcome over time, but even today some unscrupulous manufacturers produce a mass, the pigments of which very quickly lose their original brightness.

Finally, mix composition must be carefully balanced so that, even after significant drying, the watercolor can easily dissolve again in water without hardening to a stone state. Drying, it should give a hard film, which would not be subject to cracking, remained intact.

Views

Modern industry is ready to present any, even the simplest product in a variety of varieties, each of which is designed for certain highly specialized needs, and watercolors are not an exception to the rule.

Classic art watercolor

This watercolor was produced exclusively in the form of hard tiles, in this form it can be found today. It should be noted that for serious painting, only the best varieties of such watercolors are used, whereas its typical area of ​​use today is posters, and, oddly enough, blueprints. A significant part of such products is intended for children's creativity, a set for children can include 12, 24 or 36 briquettes, the main requirement for which is not to be either too soft or fragile, for which it is necessary to find the right ratio of sugar and gum arabic.

Honey is often used as a binder, and the result is a honey watercolor known to everyone since childhood, which has a characteristic sweet taste.

Alternative binder options are potato molasses or animal glue. A large amount of the latter can give the mixture an uncharacteristic state - the ability to knead in the hands with sufficient dampness.

Paints in cuvettes

Another common option for children is paint in ditches. To most uninformed people, this concept seems strange, but in fact it means that all the paints are placed in small recesses in one common box.

Naturally, there are very few watercolors in such cuvettes, so the professional scope of such sets is limited only to the creation of small sketches, while for a real large-scale painting, this amount of paint is not enough. Average watercolor here softer than tiles, however, it still retains a solid state.

Semi-solid paints in tubes

Many contemporary artists use semi-solid paints in tubes - the mass of each color is enclosed in its own tube with a lid, so that the shades do not mix and do not get dirty. That said, working with this type of watercolor literally requires a palette.

The mass in tubes is very soft and easily diluted with water, but differs in unstable uniformity of pigment application, which is not very conspicuous with multi-layer painting techniques, however, requires an increased level of skill when painting on wet paper in one layer.

In general, this type of watercolor is used to create large size paintings in a classic style. It should be noted that most of the cheap varieties are criticized by experts for the fact that during long-term storage the pigment is separated from the binder, as a result of which the paint becomes unusable.

Liquid watercolor

A rather rare and unconventional, but still in demand option is liquid watercolor, produced in small containers and designed both for additional dilution with water and for use as it is sold.

This watercolor is distinguished by a wide variety of very bright shades, even a fluorescent variety is produced.

For ease of dispensing, many manufacturers equip paint containers with dispensing droppers. Quite often, liquid watercolor is used to work with an airbrush, but there are some artists who use it for classical painting with a brush. It is noted that this type is especially sensitive to the presence of any foreign matter in the water, therefore, when diluting, it is necessary to use strictly purified water.

Watercolor pencils and crayons

It is impossible not to note the modern invention, which allows you to combine drawing and painting on one canvas, practically without changing the technique - these are special watercolor pencils and crayons. The principle is fully consistent with pencils and crayons, that is they draw with this tool without extraneous devices such as a brush, just holding it in their hand.

At the same time, according to the chemical composition, the coloring part of a pencil or crayon is watercolor paint, and although they leave a trace on paper even with ordinary drawing, when trying to blur with water, instead of a usual drawing, a full-fledged watercolor painting sketch is quite unexpectedly obtained.

It is noted that, on average, drawing with such pencils is somewhat easier than with a brush, but this, of course, is no longer quite a classic, and the result will not work too classic.

Watercolor pencils come in a wide range of colors and shades, and, like regular pencils, can vary in hardness, but they are almost never indicated on them, so you'll have to choose by trial and error. For children, it is probably better to choose softer types. as they leave a mark on paper much easier.

In appearance, watercolor pencils are indistinguishable from ordinary pencils, but manufacturers usually still leave the owner the opportunity to identify a curiosity without special experiments - for this they draw a small drop on a pencil, a brush or directly write the word "watercolor".

Based on pearlescent pigments

So far, watercolors based on pearlescent pigments remain a very rare phenomenon, even despite the fact that not only paper, but also many other materials, including wood, fabric and even gypsum, can serve as a basis for them!

However, this type of paints should be attributed, rather, to decorative than to picturesque, since in the process of drying the shades fade very much, and the former brightness is replaced by the enhanced shine characteristic of mother-of-pearl.

Brands

Every self-respecting artist has a clear idea of ​​what he needs to embody his own creative ideas, and probably knows by what rules to choose his own paints. In the case of buying watercolors for children, everything is much more complicated: parents rarely know a lot about such products, because they are guided either by the inscription "children's watercolor", or they are choosing at least relatively well-known brands.

As for the purpose for children, here professionals are usually skeptical: according to them, such a product cannot be called watercolors at all and it is in no way suitable for at least a relatively high-quality education.

As for brand orientation, it makes sense, however, for this you need to understand something in the range of popular manufacturers.

• In particular, names such as "Gamma", "Ray" or "Lighthouse" many people hear it, and even professionals agree that such a watercolor is good for learning to draw. At the same time, the same "Gamma" positions its products as professional. But the category of consumers to which these products are allegedly targeted strongly disagree with this.

Therefore, if we take domestic watercolors for the first steps, then preference should be given to the above brands.

• If the child has already reached a certain level at which the need for more serious funds becomes obvious, it is worth paying attention to the brand's products "Nevskaya palitra"... This manufacturer has been known in our country for several decades and is quoted by professionals of all levels. In particular, at a time when imported goods were unavailable, it was "Nevskaya Palitra" that was the favorite watercolor of Soviet watercolors. Paints of this brand are sold both in sets and individually - in separate cuvettes, which allows you to optimally organize the use of each shade.

• Sets called Sonnet and White Nights are considered equally appropriate both for professional painting classes and for children's creativity, but "Ladoga" is already one level higher, since it is designed for real artists, as well as for those who seriously want to become one.

• If we talk about foreign competitors, then today their products, fortunately, are presented in sufficient volume on the domestic market, and the Dutch company has distinguished itself with particular popularity and breadth of assortment. Royal talens, whose history goes back more than a hundred years. Among the products of this brand, it is worth highlighting three well-known brands - Van gogh in cuvettes and tubes, Rembrandt (under this brand not only watercolors, but also other types of paints are produced), as well as Ecoline liquid watercolors.

• In Germany, paint manufacturers are also not opposed to taking on some of the glory of great artists, and if the Dutch at least used the names of Dutch masters of painting, then the Germans named their brand Da Vinci. Again, this company produces not only watercolors, but its clear advantage is that it immediately divides its products according to the possible purpose, producing separate paints for beginners and for masters.
• Of German products, they are often praised as well. Akademie Aquarell by Schmincke, But in our country, not only children, but also the overwhelming majority of professionals do not use them, because these are premium paints costing from $ 130 per cuvette.

• French painting is known all over the world, and although the local creators of masterpieces are better known for oil painting, there is still a brand in this country that produces high-quality water-based paints. Local giant Sennelier best known for two watercolor sets, one of which Sennelier Artists includes 98 shades at once and can hardly be presented to a child.
• But the other, Raphael is no longer a pipe dream, while the quality is still very high.

• Although the first impetus for the large-scale popularization of watercolor was given in England, the English flagship in this industry is Winsor & Newton - is much less known in our country. At the same time, his traditions cannot fail to impress - a professional chemist and an inveterate artist, whose names became the name of the company, joined forces to produce the best paints almost two centuries ago!

Today this company offers its products, divided into two main classes: cotman - for solving relatively modest tasks and artist - for writing masterpieces of the highest level.

Colors and texture

Even the colors and texture of the mixture play an important role in the careful selection of watercolors. For any beginner, this concept will seem simple - the more colors, the better, and the texture is not so important, but in reality everything is much more complicated.

In particular, the presence of a large number of colors in the set seems to be a plus, but in practice, sometimes these colors are not very high quality.

It should be understood that manufacturers usually actively use the physical definition that all colors and shades on earth are the result of mixing green, red and blue in specific proportions. Actually, most companies only use pigments of these three colors, and everything else that is in the set – it is no longer a pure tone, but the result of mixing.

In principle, professional artists themselves often select the desired shade precisely by mixing the available ones, and not at all by desperate searches in all stores, but the question of the quality of the pigments used and the degree of their mixing remains open.

In the case of using ingredients of low quality, as well as with prolonged storage, the likelihood increases that the mixture will separate over time, and instead of the expected color, you will get a set of original tones, distributed unevenly.

Of course, there are world-famous manufacturers who manage to achieve such results without any unclean tricks, but in the case of cheap sets, excessive brightness can directly indicate the active use of harmful chemicals, which in the case of children is completely unacceptable.

In addition, it is very important to ensure that paints of different colors mix well with each other. Only in this way can the palette of colors, even from a small set of paints, be brought to infinity. This fact is influenced by such an indicator as dispersion, that is, the degree of grinding of the pigment: the finer it is, the better. It is hardly possible to determine the dispersion by eye, so here you will have to rely only on experience, and the easiest way to compare is how white watercolor dilutes other colors.

At the same time, the dispersion also affects the texture of the picture: with small particles of the coloring matter, the strokes are light, airy and transparent, characteristic of watercolor painting, while with large particles, the brush leaves thick, opaque traces.

How to choose?

If every professional artist has his own concept of the ideal watercolor, then the best children's paints for drawing can be determined by general requests, which are formulated not so much by children as by their parents. However, even parents do not always have a clear idea of ​​how a good children's drawing kit should look like, so this topic also requires a more detailed study:

• In particular, it should be understood that even manufacturers label their products as either children's or artistic. It is better for the school to buy exactly the children's species, even though they are significantly inferior to their artistic colleagues in all creative indicators.
• As for the very popular honey paints, designed for the smallest and still very curious artists, they are completely focused on the ecological purity of their composition. Dextrin (corn glue) is used as a binder; molasses and sugar are also included in a significant amount of weight.

Many manufacturers position such a product as completely safe for a child, but at the same time, most recipes include preservatives designed to preserve the food components of the mass in their original form.




Many buyers of paints for children in the selection process are also guided by the number of colors, and there are also certain rules. For example, even a primitive set of 6 colors is enough for children under 5 years old in their first exercises, because the subtleties of shades are still alien to most of them and the main thing for them at the moment is to smear it, but brighter.

A child can buy sets of 12-18 colors, since now the baby perceives the palette of colors well, is able to memorize a large number of shades and use them for their intended purpose.

For children of middle school age and older it is no longer worth choosing paints on your own. If they are really serious about drawing, then they should better understand what they need, and certain knowledge by this time will have already been accumulated.

It has already been written above that today watercolors are produced in a wide variety of forms, which are designed for different methods of use. Given the specifics of children's creativity, it is best to give preference either tiled watercolors, or paints in ditches, because this form is quite compact and allows you to carry the set with you at all times.

At the same time, the box should also cause great attention of parents, unless they are eager to repaint the baby's portfolio as soon as possible in all the colors of the rainbow.




It is desirable that the packaging was made of waterproof materials(for example, made of plastic) and must be tightly closed, preventing the contents from spilling out. This is especially true when the child does not have a palette, that is, in 99% of cases. In this situation, the kid has no choice but to dilute the watercolor with water directly in the cuvettes, after which a large amount of colored liquid remains in them, which tends to stain everything around.

For a successful and accurate watercolor painting, you will probably need not only the paints themselves, but also related products. First of all, brushes - you can talk for a long time about how to choose such an accessory correctly, but in short, you definitely need to clarify that the samples that are sold in the cheapest sets along with paints are extremely unsuitable for drawing, even at the most primitive level.
















To achieve more or less acceptable results, the child will need at least three brushes. If the kid is drawing professionally, it makes sense to buy him a whole set, and in order for him not to stain the insides of his bag with them, it is worth buying him a special case for storing brushes.

By the way, you can criticize for a long time incorrectly selected paints or even a baby for the fact that he has not learned to draw, and the reason for the failures in the end will be an incorrectly selected canvas. Today, typical drawing albums have become widespread in secondary schools, which, on the one hand, are theoretically suitable for painting with watercolors, on the other hand, they correspond to such a task no more than the cheapest paints and a stupid brush from a set with them.




Any professional artist will tell you what works best for watercolor painting slightly corrugated paper of medium thickness- sufficient so as not to get completely wet when soaked with water. If the paper does not meet the last criterion, then at least one of the common watercolor painting techniques will remain inaccessible to the child.

It is very easy to check the suitability of a sheet for this parameter - just leave a very wet color smear on it and see if the paint comes out from the back side. If so, then you should be more careful about the choice of paper in the future.

Drawing a landscape with watercolors in stages for children from 5 years old. Master class with step by step photos

Master class in drawing with watercolors from 5 years old "Landscape". Acquaintance with watercolors

Author: Natalya Aleksandrovna Ermakova, teacher, Municipal budgetary educational institution of additional education for children "Children's Art School named after A. A. Bolshakov", the city of Velikiye Luki, Pskov region.
Description: the master class is intended for children from 5 years old and their parents, educators, teachers of additional education.
Purpose: interior decoration, gift, drawing for exhibitions and competitions.
Target: creation of a landscape in watercolor technique.
Tasks:
- to acquaint children with the profession of an artist, to give an idea of ​​the fine arts and painting;
-to teach how to work with watercolors: wetting paints before painting, diluting with water to obtain different shades of the same color, thoroughly rinsing the brush.
-to learn to work with color when creating a landscape using the watercolor technique;
-exercise in working with different numbers of brushes;
-to cultivate an interest in the visual arts.

I have a pencil
Multi-colored gouache,
Watercolor, palette, brush
And a thick sheet of paper,
And also - a tripod easel,
Because I am ... (artist)
Hello dear guests! An excellent profession of an artist. As soon as he takes paper, brushes, paints. There was nothing on paper, but the first lines appeared: one, the other, the picture is ready.
An artist can paint everything: a house, a forest, people, animals. And the artist writes pictures. And he writes according to his plan, like a writer
An artist is a person who knows how to see the beautiful in the ordinary, remembers his impressions and knows how to express his thoughts and fantasies on paper, in stone or in other material.

The artist knows how to create new worlds in his paintings and drawings, unprecedented beauties and outlandish animals, and sometimes something completely new, the colors in the drawings turn into a fireworks of colors and shades, they cause incredible joyful emotions.
The first artists appeared in the Stone Age. The role of canvas or paper was then played by the walls of stone caves and various household items of ancient people, while coal and mineral dyes served as paints for the artists. The artist's work was closely related to the manufacture of paints, and people considered this to be a magical action. Much later, people began to paint icons, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and they began to call all this the world of fine art (the art of capturing images).

So, artists are people involved in the visual arts, there are many different directions in this profession:
-Artist-artist in the broadest sense of the word (he can do everything)
-Human visual artist
-A graphic artist-engaged in graphics (drawings with a pencil, charcoal, felt-tip pens)
-Photo artist - engaged in photography art
-Animator-animator
-Illustrator

- A painter - he is engaged in painting.
Painting is the art of depicting objects with paints. One of the types of visual arts associated with the transfer of visual images by applying paints to a rigid or flexible surface. The name came from two words "alive" (alive) and "write" (to draw) - that's how it turns out to write as if it were alive, and artists who paint began to be called painters.

In the art gallery
There are a lot of them.
On this sea we see
And on that one - the road.
Oil, watercolor
Artists' creation. (Paintings)
There are many different directions (themes for drawing) in painting, consider some of them:
If you see that from the picture
Someone is looking at us
Or a prince in an old cloak,
Or a steeplejack in a robe,

Pilot or ballerina
Or Kolka, your neighbor,
Required painting
It is called a portrait.

If you see in the picture
A cup of coffee on the table
Or fruit drink in a large decanter,
Or a rose in crystal
Or a bronze vase
Or a pear, or a cake,
Or all items at once,
Know that this is a still life.

If you see in the picture
The river is drawn
Or spruce and white frost,
Or a garden and clouds
Or a snowy plain
Or a field and a hut,
Required painting
Called - landscape

The artist paints his paintings and drawings using various paints, gouache, watercolors and many other paints. First of all, a real artist always gets to know his paints, studies their properties, colors and shades. Conducts experiments on mixing paints and obtaining new colors, dilutes them with water or paints them thickly, richly. Today we will get acquainted with watercolors, what kind of paints are they?
Their name is associated with water because "Aqua" means "water". When you dissolve them with water and start painting, the effect of lightness, airiness, subtle color transitions is created. Before painting paints, be sure to moisten with water. We dip the brush in clean water and shake off the drops on the paint without touching them with the nap of the brush.
Before you start painting, you need to try the colors. Each color is tested on paper, we collect paint on a brush and paint small specks of the color of each paint. And you can immediately see what kind of paint is transparent, and how strong is saturated. A very important feature of watercolors is that the more you dilute them with water, the more transparent they will appear, but if you add less water, the colors will be more saturated. After testing each color, you must wash the brush so as not to stain the paint. Watercolor paint is vibrant, transparent, loves cleanliness. After we have met all the colors, we can conduct experiments on mixing different colors, two, or even three. Remember which paint is friends with which, or vice versa, their friendship ends badly and turns out to be a dirty puddle.
Three colors, three colors, three colors,
Guys, is it not enough?
And where can we get green, orange?
And if we mix paints in pairs?
Blue and red (this one)
We will get the color ... (purple).
And we will mix blue with yellow.
What color do we get? (green)
And red plus yellow is not a secret for everyone,
They will give us of course ... (orange color).
This exercise on familiarity with colors is carried out before the main task, the children are happy to respond and experiment with color. Such an exercise can be carried out on a separate piece of paper, but it is better to start a "cheat sheet" album, where children will each time do exercises for acquaintance with color and study various painting techniques.

Materials and tools:
-A3 sheet of paper (for landscape)
- A4 sheet for paint samples (or album)
-watercolor
-brushes of three numbers (large, medium, thin)
-a simple pencil, eraser (for the smallest children, they can draw a horizon line)
-a glass for water
-a cloth for brushes

Master class progress:

I see a land hitherto unknown.
All around the land is well-groomed, beautiful ...
But to me, my soul, it is so lovely here!
So wide is the beauty of my Russia!
Today we will draw a landscape, for kids a good role is played by showing the future drawing and considering it, what is shown on it.

The landscape begins with the border of heaven and earth - this is the horizon line, where they meet each other. Draw the horizon line with the tip of the brush, then start painting over the sky from the very top of the sheet in a horizontal direction. I always draw with the kids, a new technique, a new detail of work, and the children repeat this next in their drawing.

Brush strokes should be large, smooth, use the largest brush. The paint must be well diluted with water, and try to create an even, uniform background.

Then, from the horizon line, draw the ground, the field (green). The brush must be thoroughly rinsed after each color. Paint over the surface horizontally, with a large brush, green with a lot of water.

Now take a medium size brush and paint it with the tip. The color of the paint is emerald - we paint the hills, the paint is bright and rich.

Using a clean brush and water, blur the emerald lines of the hills, from emerald to basic green. So that you get a smooth transition from color to color. The work takes place with the addition of a large amount of water, practically against a damp background (therefore, the work glows). Excess water can be removed with a cloth.

We leave the field to dry and return to work on the sky. We paint on a brush with red paint and draw a rich stripe above the horizon line.

With a wash brush, draw a line along the lower edge of the red strip with a clean brush with water, blur it.

Add orange and yellow colors in the same way.

Now draw grass blades with vertical small strokes, the farther they are from us, the smaller.

Then wash the brush, squeeze out and lightly smear the blades of grass, as if rubbing them with a brush. We draw a red sun.

Swatting the brush on the sheet, draw shrubs.

Draw a deep blue line along the horizon - a forest in the distance. And with a thin brush, a blade of grass in the foreground of the drawing.

With a thin brush, make vertical blue lines, where there is a forest, these are trees.

Select the forest in the distance with a thin line of black color (thin brush), and draw branches on the bushes.

Watercolors can be classified according to the following criteria:

• The number of colors in the set;
• Manufacturer;
• Packaging design;
• Type of paint (hard, soft, honey, etc.);
• The presence in the set of brushes and other additional tools.

Children's watercolors are sold in boxes with funny designs featuring their favorite cartoon characters and books. For kids, it is better to buy watercolors in small sets that include only the primary colors. This will be the first step to learning how to draw and an additional lesson to consolidate your knowledge of the color palette. Professional artists also use a minimum of colors, obtaining the desired shades by mixing paints.

It is worth paying attention to the following points:

• Compliance with GOST;
• Color retention when exposed to sunlight;
• The paint is well taken with a damp brush and is easily washed out;
• It does not penetrate paper and does not clump.

It is not difficult to buy watercolor in Moscow today, but by contacting trusted stores and purchasing goods from trusted manufacturers, you can protect yourself from low-quality products. Artistic watercolor helps the child's creative development, the formation of his beautiful handwriting, and also allows him to discover new talents in his son or daughter. Thanks to paints, kids can transfer their emotions to paper and show their imagination.

The minimum price for watercolors is about 29 rubles, so the opportunity to engage a child with an interesting and useful activity that will give him pleasure, and parents' free time does not require any special financial costs.

Watercolor- simple and affordable material for children's creativity, and playing with watercolors with preschool children Is a great way to develop creative thinking. The first part of the article can be read, and today - new games with watercolors for children from one and a half years old "Seasons". We have not only collected interesting ways to work with watercolors for children, but also have chosen the most suitable for each season.

For playing with watercolors, we need: watercolors, brushes, white paper, a container for water + water, juice straws, ballpoint pens, wax crayons. Before starting to work with watercolors, it is better to cover the table with oilcloth, and put on a special protective apron for the child.

Watercolors games for children

1. Winter. Draw something with white wax crayon, then have your child create a beautiful watercolor background. When the kid starts drawing, your drawing will appear. Here is such a simple trick, and it brings a lot of joy to little artists. It is very cool to draw winter with white wax pencils in combination with watercolors: snowflakes, snowmen, snowdrifts, etc.

2. Autumn. If you dried beautiful leaves in the summer, then they can also be used in games with watercolors. You smear the leaf with thicker paint (the less water, the better) and make a print. It turns out very decorative, you can decorate with such prints or make a panel to decorate a children's room. You will have the most beautiful autumn.

3. Summer. Invite your child to draw a few colored spots, then circle them with a pen with black paste or felt-tip pen. Draw on the legs, tails, and beaks. And now the funny birds are ready. In the same way, you can draw mice, pigs or hares, in a word, all those birds and animals that we meet on summer walks. Such an exercise is good for the development of imagination, it can be offered to children over two years old.

4. Spring. Wet a sheet of white paper with water, and then immediately apply paints, you get a beautiful background, as the paints will mix very well. Let the background dry and move on to the second stage. If the child gets tired quickly, then you can draw through a straw on a blank sheet, it also turns out well.

We drip paint and begin to blow on a drop of paint through a straw. Keep the straw close to the paint and turn the sheet of paper. The paint will flow fancifully. By turning the straw and blowing in different directions, you can get very interesting patterns. The easiest way is to draw the sun or grass, and then you can move on to the trees.

When the child is trained, wonderful spring landscapes can be painted using this technique. For children over three years old.

We hope you enjoyed playing with watercolors for children "Seasons". We will be glad if you take a photo of the resulting masterpieces and send them to us, we will definitely publish the most beautiful ones! How do you play with watercolors? Share in the comments.

There are never many ideas for creativity, and if children also participate in the creative process, you must admit that it often becomes not only creative, but also research. Today in Anastasia Borisova , blog author English4.me - English for me and my family... Anastasia's blog is not only about language, but also about creativity, so today we go on an excursion to creative storerooms and learn simple watercolor techniques and techniques.

How many creative and well-rounded moms are here on! And interesting finds await us at every step. Many mothers, seeing after some classes the incredible result of their 2-4 year old child's work - even if not always the same as intended - exclaim: “How original and simple! Where is it taught? " Everyone wants to become a little bit of a sorceress for their children.

So I, using the simplest techniques, I painted a winter landscape in 15 minutes, which my husband considered worthy to put up for sale. 🙂

The best children's books

The non-standard use of materials and the variety of created effects give the child the feeling "I can!"

Watercolor is fluid and naughty. We will use just these not always convenient properties, creating “masterpieces” mostly “wet”.

1. Crayon resistance effect - manifestations of wax crayon

This is perhaps the most common technique. A drawing or inscription is applied to a sheet of paper with wax crayon or a candle, and painted over with watercolors on top. Using a white crayon or candle, you can make secret notes or congratulations; yellow crayon creates a glow effect; bright blues, greens and pinks underneath dark watercolors - neon effect. You can also combine this technique with rubbing. We put a textured substrate under the sheet (everything that can be found at home) and rub it on top with the flat side of the chalk. If you do it carefully, and put leaves or some kind of embossed object, you get excellent prints.

2. Salt - salt on wet watercolor

Sprinkle salt on the still damp, painted sheet and you can achieve interesting effects. Medium coarse salt leaves "snowflakes" on the blue when it dries. On a green background, you get translucent foliage. Fine extra salt dries up almost tightly. So you can add texture to the road, stone, create a galaxy.

3. Blotting - bleaching paint.

By removing excess water and a layer of paint from the sheet with a dry napkin, you can paint winter spruces covered with snow, or sea foam. You get a pale moon or sun by wrapping a toilet paper tube with a tissue paper and blotting the watercolor sky. Even an already dried drawing can be touched up by sprinkling it with water and gently rubbing the desired area.

If you crumple a napkin and put it against a blue sky, you get very natural clouds.

A crumpled napkin also produces an interesting texture. Texture sheets can then be successfully used to create collages.

4. Pressing - pushing

In the picture above, you can see a clear inscription in dark letters (I ...). It was made on wet watercolor with the tip of a brush (the paint seems to flow down into the pressed hollows). In this way, you can label the drawing or add details. Placing a sheet of wet watercolor with a textured object on it under the press works on the same principle. It is best, of course, to print the leaves like that. But even from the feathers and branches of a Christmas tree, a good decorative picture comes out.

5. Splatter and spray - splashing

A toothbrush plus watercolor will help to make rain, snow, leaf fall, to depict the wind. It is interesting to just sprinkle different paints on a dry sheet. A dampened leaf will have a very different effect. It will be possible to observe how the droplets spread out, merging with each other into a whimsical ornament.

You can spray around the stencil, or vice versa inside it. A consistently original result is ensured. Just do not forget to cover the workspace with newspapers, the paint flies far away.

6. Masking tape - drawing with masking tape

I was surprised to find that the aforementioned adhesive tape peels off the paper several times perfectly, which means we use it as the basis for the stencil. You can tear it with your hands into uneven strips and draw a forest.

Any geometric compositions are great. You can even cut something more detailed into the thickness of the tape, such as the houses in the first photo. The main thing is that this stencil does not need to be additionally fastened and held, and the likelihood of paint getting under it is not great if the edges are well smoothed.

7. Foam painting - painting with foam

Fun and beautiful texture in one bottle. In a container you need to mix water, a little liquid soap and a lot, a lot of paint. We give the child a tube and let him blow the bubbles. As soon as a high cap grows, we apply paper to it. At the same time, it is better to undress the child completely, so that later it will be easier to wash it.

8. Alcohol and citric acid - alcohol and citric acid

Both liquids, as it were, "push apart" and "eat away" the paint. A drop of alcohol has a fish eye effect, and its volatility can create additional areolae around that eye, similar to a halo around the sun. Very unusual.

Lemon juice spreads well over fresh watercolors, but does not affect dried ones. It spreads quite a bit by itself, so it's important not to overdo it. Ideally, these "shaggy" blots are obtained. After drying, they can be turned into monsters or someone else by adding arms, legs, eyes.

9. Stamping - stamping

For my taste, it is better to work with stamps with thicker paints - gouache, acrylic. You can use whatever is at hand, as well as cut out stamps from potatoes, print cut vegetables, etc. Watercolor is good for creating textures. We take a napkin, dip it in paint and leave traces that are quite similar to stones, for example.

10. Plastic cling wrap - cling film

Did you know that film can draw too? It is enough to lay it on wet watercolor and move it. Ice crystals or other kinds of abstraction are obtained.

If you make one large even "window", framed by wrinkles, then after the paint dries you will see, say, a lake, or a wormwood. In the photo, it even looks like a rose.

11. Blowing - blowing up

Another technique for drawing with a straw. Blow again, but this time as hard as possible, dropping a drop of paint across the leaf, and you end up with intricate trees or just funny weirdos, or perhaps hair for a pre-drawn character.

If you want, you can let the paint flow on its own wherever it wants. Just turn the sheet vertically, and then fantasize with the child, it looks like it.

12. Light table - light table

Or a window, to put it simply. 🙂 This technique is not for toddlers, but mom can create a gallery of children's portraits if she wants. All relatives will be provided with gifts for a year in advance. As a child, I think, everyone "brought together" pictures, applying the original with a white sheet to the window. And if you take a photo? In photo editors, you need to ensure that there are 2 colors left - black and white (the posterize function).

Then there are several options for action. You can paint over all the white areas with wax crayon or a candle, and then go through with watercolors. It turns out interesting, but not very clean, because it is rather difficult to track where the chalk went.

You can simply circle all the white spots with a pencil, and then carefully fill the rest with paint. It's not as long or as difficult as it sounds. Just a little patience and accuracy, and you have 3-4 portraits for a child's daytime sleep.

If you decide to put the case on stream, then in hobby markets it is better to purchase a reserve liquid for watercolor paper. Apply it with a brush on white, go through it with watercolor on top, and then remove the reserve, like a film from a sheet. Fast, clean, original.