Watercolor techniques

How to Do Blow Painting with Straws

June 30, 2022

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Blow painting with straws is a simple but fun action art activity. Use a straw to blow liquid paint on paper, creating amazing designs!

Updated August 2022

Blow painting with straws is one of those simple art activities that you can do over and over again and enjoy it every time and get a different result every time.

It’s one of our Top 10 Art Activities for Kids and when you’ve tried it, you’ll understand why!

It’s kind of funny to watch, super satisfying to do, and the results are always interesting.

Here’s a video showing blow painting with straws in action and keep scrolling for step by step instructions.

Blow Painting with Straws

MATERIALS

Tag board, card stock, or other heavy paper
Liquid watercolor paint*
D r opper or pipette
Drinking straws

*If you don’t have liquid watercolor paint, you can use watered-down food coloring or watered-down tempera paint.

Time needed: 30 minutes.

INSTRUCTIONS

Set up for the activity
Place a sheet of paper on a tray with sides (a baking dish would work) or do this activity outside.

Cut your straws in half, so your blowing action is more effective and closer to the paint. If you’re doing this with young children, poke a hole halfway up the straw with a pin. This will prevent them from sucking paint into the straw by accident.

Put your liquid watercolor paints in small dishes or paint cups.
Add paint drops to paper
Use a dropper or paintbrush to transfer one or more droplets of liquid watercolor paint to the paper.
Blow at paint through straw
Blow through the straw at the paint drops, forcing the paint to move along the paper in tiny rivulets.
Repeat with more paint
Repeat steps 1 and 2 with more paint and more colors until you are satisfied with your design. Set aside to dry and start over with a new sheet of paper!

It is so interesting to see the colors run together and mix. We added lots of paint to this paper to make a rainbow, blowing the paint together to blend it.