Art With Lukey

Kenzie had spent a few days with us last week and, during that visit, she and I did a couple of art projects.  This week, both Lukey and Kenzie were with us so we pulled out the art supplies again.  Kenzie didn't feel like painting so Lukey and I tackled what I initially thought would be a simple project.  Honestly, in hindsight, it was not the best project for someone completely new to watercolors but we still pressed on and did the best we could.

We chose to paint a silhouetted girl on a swing against a colorful sky.  Since the girl on the swing was silhouetted, we wouldn't have to worry about depth nor details.  What I didn't think about was how difficult it would be to paint the fine lines of the rope holding the swing.  Drawing is one thing once a child learns to control a pencil but painting fine lines is completely different and requires a different skillset.  

Painting fine lines is really a skill that requires a lot of practice.  This is especially true when painting with watercolors because the brushes are so soft and often quite long.  It is very different than drawing with pencils.  

In hindsight, for painting the ropes of the swing, I should have pulled out some fine acrylic paint brushes because they are stiffer.  Or, we could have even used a sharpened wooden end of a paint brush to use as an ink pen.  If I had waterproof pens, we could have used pens.  Also in hindsight, we could have used our watercolor pencils but, unfortunately, I didn't think of any of these options at the time so we strictly used watercolor brushes...  and we did this without much practice in painting fine lines.  Consequently, painting the ropes of the swing turned out be a bit of a sloppy mess.  I was so focused on teaching Lukey about wet-on-wet watercolors that I didn't think to change gears and use a different medium or even different type of brush for the fine lines.  

On the positive side, Lukey learned a lot about blending colors and painting gradients.  Also, he drew a nice swing and girl in pencil at the beginning of our project.  I had him begin drawing the girl as a stick figure and then go back to add thickness to her legs, torso and arms.  That worked well because he ended up drawing a very good figure of a girl leaning back on a swing!

This one, below, was my painting before we ruined them with poor fine line control when painting those ropes.  

We were a bit disappointed with our fine lines so neither one of us thought to take another photo after we finished.  Lukey learned quite a bit about the quirkiness of painting with watercolors though.  Learning and developing new skills was the goal so the session was a success regardless.

However, I will admit that this particular project was not the best confidence builder.  It even shook my confidence a bit!