Watercolor art ideas for kids using simple art supplies you already have at home. Plus, download the free 5-page printable guide!
Updated April 2024
There is so much you can do with a simple watercolor palette! From watercolor resist art and paper plate flowers to butterfly symmetry prints and starry night sky art, just about any watercolor technique or activity can be done with the simplest of watercolor paint sets.
First, we’ll share the materials you’ll need to get started (not many!) and a video overview of the ideas. And don’t forget to download the free printable that you can print out!
MATERIALS
- A watercolor paint set*
- Paint brushes and a cup of water
- Sturdy art paper or watercolor paper
- Drawing tools such as crayons, oil pastels, pens, or pencils (depending on the activity)
- You may want something to protect your work surface
*In the video, we show a couple of our favorite Faber-Castell watercolor paint sets, the Connector Paint Box Watercolor Set and Watercolor Paint Set with Brush. For more of our paint recommendations, check out: The Best Paints for Kids
Watch the video above to see these 12 watercolor art projects in action or head straight to the photos and instructions below.
12 Watercolor Art Ideas
1. Watercolor Dot Art
Create pointillism-inspired dot art with cotton swabs and watercolor paint. You can create images (such as flowers, butterflies, cars, or faces), abstract art, or make a dot-to-dot picture for a friend or sibling to complete.
2. The Relaxing Scribble Art Activity
Use a crayon or oil pastel to draw big looping scribbles all over your paper. Fill in some sections with color from crayons or oil pastels and then paint the rest with watercolors.
We love to do this while listening to audio books!
3. Watercolor Doodle Flowers
Use watercolor dots as the starting point for playful doodled flowers. Paint dots then add designs to cut out or create your own stickers!
4. Create the Starry Night Sky Effect with salt
Sprinkle a little salt over a still-wet watercolor painting for a beautiful starry night sky or mottled effect. The salt absorbs the water in the watercolor paint, leaving white spots in some areas and concentrated pigment in others.
5. The Watercolor Resist Technique
Use crayons or oil pastels to draw a picture (abstract or realistic – anything goes!), then paint over the drawing with watercolor paints. The waxy crayons or oil pastels will resist the water-based watercolors, creating a simple but almost magical effect.
6. Watercolor Butterfly Symmetry Prints
Create beautiful, symmetrical butterfly wings with translucent watercolor paint. Fold a piece of paper in half, open back up, and draw the body and wings of a butterfly with a crayon or oil pastel. Now use a lot of wet watercolor paint to paint one side of the butterfly. Press the other side of the paper to the wet paint, and open to reveal your symmetrical butterfly print!
7. Make Flowers with Paper Plates
To make these paper plate flowers, inspired by Pink Stripey Socks, cut a few flower shapes from paper plates in decreasing sizes and staple or glue them together in the center. Paint your flowers with watercolor paint. You can also embellish them with additional doodles and drawings with markers or chalk markers after they dry.
8. Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Shapes
Experiment with the wet-on-wet watercolor technique by using cookie cutters!
Start by setting a cookie cutter on top of your paper. Paint the area inside the cookie cutter with just water. Then dip the paintbrush into watercolor paint and add color to the wet paper inside the cookie cutter. Watch as the color spreads around the water. Dip your paint brush into a different color and repeat. Leave the cookie cutter in place and let your painted shape dry.
9. The Watercolor + Cling Wrap Technique
Cover a wet watercolor painting with gently scrunched up cling wrap and let dry overnight for an amazing geometric effect. The cling wrap forces the watercolor paint to concentrate where the plastic touches the paper creating intricate geometric designs.
10. Raised Salt Painting
For raised salt painting, a favorite kids’ art activity, draw a picture or make a squiggle design with a bottle of glue. Then cover the glue lines completely with salt and tap off the extra salt. Saturate your paint brush with watercolor paint and lightly touch to the salt-covered glue lines. Watch as the color magically travels along the salt + glue!
11. Make Faux Stained-Glass Paintings
Create a stained-glass art effect with a black glue “lead” design filled in with colorful translucent watercolors. Mix a tablespoon or so of black tempera or acrylic paint into a half-empty bottle of glue, replace the cap, and shake well. Squeeze out the black glue to draw a picture on your paper. Once it’s completely dry, paint in the sections with watercolor paint.
12. Compass Painting with Watercolors
Use a compass to paint watercolor circles of different sizes! Replace the pencil in a traditional compass with a small paintbrush (we broke our paint brush in half to make it easier to use). Then dip the brush end in paint to make lots of circles all over your paper.
So, there you have it! A dozen awesome watercolor art activities for kids of all ages! Try one or do them all!
We even created a printable guide so you can keep these ideas handy on your fridge or keep in your art space. Enter your email to have one sent directly to you for free! If you missed it, clear your cookies & refresh this page!
More Watercolor Art Ideas for Kids
- 6 Easy Watercolor Ideas Using Resist Techniques
- 11 Fun Watercolor Craft Ideas for Kids
- 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids
- How to Paint Watercolor Flowers for Kids
- How to Paint Watercolor with Markers
- How to Make Pointillism Art with Cotton Swabs
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