Watercolour turtles using masking fluid

I love introducing the children to new techniques and mediums that they would have never used before.  Masking fluid is often used in watercolour paintings yet is rarely introduced at such a young age.  I thought it would be fun to give it a try as an alternative to the oil pastel resist technique and was curious to see how the children would react.  I think the end verdict was that they quite liked it.  It was super fun pulling / rubbing it off at the end.

I also love to encourage the children to paint in vivid colours that are not always natural.  I showed them some examples of watercolour paintings where lots of colours were used on animals to a great effect.  However its always the artists choice and some children wanted to stick with turtle colours..

As usual we also experimented with the wet on wet technique, adding salt and blending colours.

Age:  Prep to Grade 5 (the first picture is done by a prep and the one below is by a Grade 1).

What you need:

• Watercolour paper (I just use Kmart watercolour pads)
• Liquid Watercolours (you could also use normal pan watercolours)
• Pictures of Turtles and I also gave out a few different variations on how to draw a turtle
• Paintbrushes (the ones you use with the masking fluid may never be the same again - don't use your good brushes!)
• Salt
• Masking Fluid
• Black Markers
• Erasers (to remove masking fluid)
• Pencils 

How To:

• Draw the turtle in pencil
• Go over pencil lines with masking fluid
• Leave to dry (approx 5 mins - I had them experimenting with the movement of colours on a sheet of paper (which we used in our Halloween lesson) whilst they waited)
• Paint with liquid watercolours starting with the turtle, then fill in the ocean
• Add a sprinkle of salt
• Leave painting to dry (we left ours for a week)
• Rub or peel off masking fluid
• Add more details with black marker

The Results:

I just LOVE watercolours - these turned out fab as usual!

Cheers
Fiona