Crayon Raindrops through a Watercolor Rainbow

Today all I'm doing is using crayon instead of paint for the raindrops in my last post.
Painting Raindrops

Then I'm adding a rainbow over the crayon raindrops.

• Draw and color in some raindrops with a blue crayon.
• You only need about 1/4 the size of a blue sheet of construction paper because a few raindrops might be fun whereas a lot of them might be tedious.

Crayon Raindrops on a Small Blue Piece of Construction Paper

• With watercolor paints, paint a rainbow over the raindrops.
• Start at the bottom of the rainbow and work up.

7. Red

6. Orange

5. Yellow

4. Green

3. Blue

2. Indigo

1. Violet

Watercolor Rainbow over Crayon Raindrops

Crayon and Watercolor Monarch Butterfly

Crayon and Watercolor Monarch Butterfly on Green Construction Paper

Sketch a Monarch butterfly on white paper. 

The model I used for this very rough drawing is the picture of an adult Monarch at http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/.

Trace around the white spots with a black crayon first.

Then color all the black parts of the butterfly (except the head and antennae--they'll be done later) with black crayon.

Paint the wings of the butterfly with yellow, orange, and red watercolors. 

I started with a coat of yellow everywhere except the tips, then added orange from the top to half way down the wing, and then finished with light coat of red at the very top of the wings.

When the wings became too wet, I dabbed up the wetness with a tissue.

When the paint is dry, cut out the butterfly--keeping it one whole piece--and choose the color of construction paper you'd like for the background.

Fold the butterfly down the middle of the body. As you can see, my wings are not equal size.

Put a line of white glue down the crease.

Turn the butterfly over and glue it to your chosen background.

When the glue is dry, use black crayon to draw the head and antennae.

Crayon and Watercolor Butterfly

Crayon and Watercolor Butterfly on Red Construction Paper Background

1.  On white paper, draw the outline of two butterfly wings with crayon. 

2. Color butterfly wings with crayon.

3. Paint over the crayon colored wings with watercolor paints.

4. After the watercolors dry, cut along butterfly outline keeping both wings one whole piece.

5.  Decide what color paper your butterfly looks best on.

6.  Fold butterfly in half.

7.  Put a line of white glue along the fold line going down the back of the butterfly and glue it on the background.

8.  After the glue dries, paint on the body and antennae with non-toxic, washable poster paint.

A Watercolor Rabbit for Chinese New Year

If you want exactly proportioned Chinese Characters, this is not the place, but if you want a little craft that may help kids remember a Chinese Character, this rabbit may be it.

2011 is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, so I thought writing the Character for Rabbit painted with watercolors like a rabbit might be fun.

I've given the order of strokes for Rabbit in Chinese here. There are 8. Following the correct order is great, but this is just for acquainting children with the Character, so perfection is not my goal.

The pronunciation is "tu" similar to the English "to" as in "Me to!" With great emphasis on "to" for the down tone. And yes, I do believe trying to pronounce the tones is important even if the proportions in my Characters aren't perfect.

After I had practiced the order of the strokes a few times, I wrote it in crayon. I used a cotton swab and watercolor paint to make the shape of the rabbit over the Character. After the paint had dried, I drew a face with marker.

Watercolor and crayon Valentine messages

Here's a simple Valentine drawing and message in crayon painted over with watercolor paints. I used a cotton swab dipped in water for each color and a white blank flash card to draw on.