Glue Resist African Animals Watercolour

This is a colourful watercolour lesson I found on the United Art & Education website

It's a good lesson on both line quality, wet-on-wet watercolour technique and drawing African animals. 

So I had my Grade 8 students start off by choosing an African animal to draw. They printed off reference photos from the computer lab. Quite a few of them surprisingly chose animals that, in fact, don't live in Africa (ie: tigers), so I made sure to double check with each students which animal they were planning on using.

They drew the animal in pencil on watercolour paper. They could draw either just the head or the whole body. They could also include a setting/habitat (trees, grasses, etc.) if they wished.

Then, using the leftover black glue (white glue and black ink or paint) from my previous "Hunderwasser Houses" project, students passed over the pencil lines using either a bamboo skewer (I buy packs from the Dollar) or a paintbrush. 

I encouraged them to be 'loose' with their line and to get a variety of thick and thin lines.

Many of them couldn't help but draw the lines very carefully and precisely, though. Perfectionist tendencies.

bamboo skewers- cool tools for loose drawings!

A detail of the line quality achieved with the black glue and bamboo skewer:

Let these dry overnight.

The next class, I demonstrated the wet-on-wet watercolour technique. I encouraged students to mix analagous colours together and to use between 2-3 related colours.

This step doesn't take long at all- about 10 minutes. WARNING: Don't brush over the drawing too much or the black glue can start dissolving and fading. Use soft watercolour brushes for this step.

Let dry flat. 

Expressive, colourful results!

Ta daaa!