Watercolor Landscape Collages

Watercolor paint is one of our favorite mediums at BMS. No matter how often we use it in class, students are intrigued by the endless possibilities.

I usually start of our watercolor introduction with a series of stations so students can explore the options. Wet-in-wet, wash, dry brush, rubbing alcohol, salt, scraping and blotting are some of the old standbys that I teach often. This quarter we looked at some other ideas like plastic wrap, crystallizing (using Epsom salts) and rice absorbing. The results were fabulous!

Plastic wrap technique...

Dry brush and plastic wrap techniques...

Wet-in-wet and rubbing alcohol techniques...

Oil technique...

***Be watching for a handout on all of these techniques in the next month on theartofed.com

Once we had a good understanding of all the possibilities that watercolor can create, we started to paint strips of paper to represent textured parts of a landscape (the strips were torn before we started).  Most students painted between 7-8 strips of paper to use within their landscape and combined it with colored construction paper to complete the finished work. 

Picasso Pop Can Portraits- More to see!

Today, one of our favorite projects was posted on the Art of Ed. Check here for the complete lesson plan and project description. 

This unique project is a lot like middle schoolers themselves- wild, fun and unexpected! Not only are students excited to bring an empty can of their favorite soda, but they love to crush the cans into abstract face shapes. This engaging lesson easily brings together multiple facets of art making: portrait drawing, abstraction, recycled materials, perspective, pattern, and emphasis. It’s a jam-packed activity that the students love. Check out our process and finished examples below!