By Andrea Mulder-Slater
Students will learn to “go with the flow” as they allow their materials to take on a life of their own.
What You Need:
- Heavy paper (watercolor paper is the best but poster paper will work)
- Ink (waterproof ink will work the best but you can use a washable ink if you are concerned with spills)
- Skewer sticks or long pickle sticks
- Watercolor paint, brushes and water
What You Do:
- Have your ink ready to go before you begin painting.
- Choose two colors of paint that “go” together. Find something that unifies the colors. Use complementary colors or various shades of one color. Play with this idea for a while until you have colors you like.
- Paint the colors onto your paper as a wash. Use a lot of water and just a little paint. Your colors should be very transparent (see-through). The paint should flow easily onto your paper.
- While the paint is still wet, take a skewer stick, dip it into the ink bottle and place it on the wet paper you have just painted. Do this in several areas of the paper.
- The ink will run and roll all across the paper forming interesting shapes and lines.
- Allow the ink to go where it pleases.
- When you feel that there is enough ink on the paper, let everything dry.
- You may wish to add some details with the ink once the paper has dried thoroughly.
