Prompt for Watercolor Exploration

Writing a prompt that connects to the properties of watercolor

Age group: middle school and high school. They may feel too old for crayons, if so, could use watercolor pencils. *See watercolor and acrylic mixed media idea at bottom of page*

Concepts that would need to be established in previous lessons leading up to this one:

• Composition

• Rule of Thirds

• Value, black and white and with color

Big Idea: "Focus"

Would begin lesson by introducing a power point with examples of photography with shallow depth of field and paintings with shallow depth of field.

Questions for students:

• How does some things in the image being blurry make you feel?

• Would you feel different emotions about the same image if everything was in focus?

• Why would the artist make things blurry on purpose?

  
  

• Do you always see everything around you in focus with your eyes? Do you sometimes focus on looking at just one thing at a time?

• Have you heard of peripheral vision?

  
  

• How would you choose what information to focus on and what to hide? Why would you choose to only hint at some information? Why may you want to be mysterious?

• How does this let you control the order in which viewers would gather information from the details in your scene? Why would you want people to explore things in your picture in a certain order?

Lesson prompt:

On your 1st piece of paper: scribble swatches of different crayon colors and experiment with how different watercolor colors look on top.

On your 2nd piece of paper: imagine a landscape with a foreground in focus and background out of focus. Draw the landscape in crayon, then choose where you add layering with watercolor, fading (value), and certain colors to make the foreground pop more than the background.

Concepts that can be introduced through this prompt

(selectively or to different degrees depending on age level):

• Visual hierarchy within an image

• Emotional impact, shallow depth of field can evoke feelings like longing, mystery, a dreamlike state, or imply the visual is from a memory

• Purposefully guiding the attention of the viewer

• Creating contrast with value and texture

• Depth

• Depth of Field as a tool in storytelling

Experimenting:

Ways lesson plan needs to be developed:

• Alternative materials in case the kids feel too old for crayons.

  • Watercolor pencils as alternative

  • *see bottom of page for watercolor and acrylic idea*

• Anticipating ways the students could be confused

• Accounting for prep time with water cups and cleanup time, and needing a space for art to dry

• How much free range do I let them have with subject matter for their scene or landscape? Showing examples of a cityscape and mountain scene could be helpful? Or example of foreground and background in interior space? Should I make them stick to a scene indoors or outdoors?

• Would need access to watercolor or mixed media paper

Big Question:

Would showing my example make them just copy me and not let them experiment and find ways to use the properties of watercolor that much? How can I best organize experimentation before showing my example and having them create a final artwork?

• For advanced middle school or high school settings: After challenging them to identify what visual characteristics imply depth in photos and to experiment different ways to recreate that with watercolor, I could ask them about their findings first and then show visual examples of tricks they could have come across

  
  

  Strategy 1

  Foreground: dark watercolor values

  Background: light, faded watercolor values

  
  

  Strategy 2

  Foreground: dry texture over-top underlying watercolor for more solid form

  Background: only dry spotty texture, light pressure, white of paper showing through to create grainy or blur effect

  
  

  Strategy 3

  Foreground: dry texture over-top underlying watercolor (bold and strong value)

  for more solid form

  Background: no texture, only faded watercolor with a weak value

  
  

  Strategy 4

  Foreground: only dry media (crayon or colored pencil) hard pressure for minimal texture, strong value, crisp outlines

  Background: only watercolor, purposefully blurred and smeared and mixed, no outlines

  
  

  I'd make sure to tell them there is no right or wrong way, only creating your own rules for creating an image and following them. Or making specific strategic choices of when to break your own rules

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Similar but other possible, entirely separate prompt I would have to develop further for middle school:

Foreground: using all watercolor colors over-top its matching crayon color

Background: using a blue wash over-top all crayon colors in the background after explaining the science behind atmospheric perspective and the Rayleigh effect.

• Would have to describe the science in a few sentences in simple terms, with visual aid from pictures on a power point

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Another similar, entirely separate prompt I would have to develop further for high school to avoid crayons:

*see tested experiment on other watercolor blog post*

Day 1

1) Plan a foreground and background for a scene. Plan for the background to be out of focus and to be given a short amount of time to scribble it (doesn't have to be perfect, get excited to purposefully mess it up)

2) Use white gouache to prime surface

3) Use watercolor or watercolor pencil on the background of the scene, expect it smear smudge, and be out of control (chance procedures)

Day 2

4) After it dries and you get your final, random resulting smudges, paint the foreground of the scene with acrylic paint on top. Make everything as crisp and clear as you can, high opacity. Lots of time for this part.