Little girls – and big girls too – love shiny sparkly things. My daughter is no exception. If it sparkles and glistens in the sun, she’s ready to hoard it! In fact, she already has 3 different (small) treasure chests, and would happily gather several more to hold her collections of crystals, jewels, and rocks. So I figured, it was time to bring some gems into our paintings too. Especially when it’s this easy!
This project was fun for both of us. From the mystery of turning dots into shapes, to mixing the watercolors, to playing with the layered effects of colored pencils, there are lots of surprises to be had. It all begins by connecting the dots – are you ready?
What you’ll need:
- Watercolor paper or other thick paper
- Watercolor paints and brushes
- Fine tipped black Sharpie markers
- Ruler
- Masking Tape (or washi tape – that’s all we could find!)
- Colored pencils, crayons, and other dry media (markers? pastels?)
- We also used some glittery gold craft paints too.
What you’ll do:
- Using a Sharpie marker, begin placing dots on the page. The key to a good crystalline shape is making only one dot at the bottom, and scattering lots of dots above it – the greater the distance from the bottom dot, the more obvious the pointed base of your jewel will be.
- Connect the dots with your ruler and Sharpie. Connect the outermost edges/outline first, then connect the interior dots anyway you’d like – not all of them have to connect to each other, pick and choose the shapes you’d like to see.
- For a clean edge to your jewel, cover the outer edge of your drawing with masking tape to keep the watercolors inside the shape. This is optional.
- Add watercolors – this is when the experiments start. You can carefully color in each shape, or wet the entire jewel and let the watercolors mix themselves as you add them. You can also add gold or glitter paints too.
- Let it dry.
- Remove the tape carefully.
- Get out your colored pencils, crayons, or other dry media. Color in the shapes – but pick and choose. You can add new shapes too. For Birdie, I suggested she pick a shape, then color it using the colors in the shapes next to it. It was a fun way to explore new color combinations and layering. But in the end, she painted her jewel exactly as she wanted to. It was my reminder that there is no right answer to being creative!
- Enjoy your finished gems – you may end up making several!
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