Easy Watercolor Resist Art

Painting with watercolors is a secret passion of mine that I unfortunately don’t practice too often anymore. If you’ve never painted with watercolors before, let me tell you, it’s easier than you might think! Making your own watercolor art for your walls is not only inexpensive, but can be a fun and memorable project that you and your kids can do together. I’m excited to show you how to create Watercolor Resist Art. This is a quick and easy project that doesn’t require any fancy tools or skills!

 

 

My daughter loves to paint and draw (just like her mama!) and she wanted to put some new art in her room. I thought this would be a quick project we could do together.

 

How to Make Watercolor Resist Art

Items you will need:

Heavy weight watercolor paper (I used a 90 lb. weight paper)

Watercolors

large soft paintbrush

cups of water

rubber cement

stencils

 

Choose what ever stencil you like and place the stencil over your watercolor paper.  Brush a thick coating of rubber cement over the stencil (and watch how memories of your early school years flood your mind!). If you’ve ever smelled rubber cement, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. 

 

 

Remove the stencil and you will see the rubber cement impression. Allow it to try completely (about 5 minutes).

 

 

Choose the colors you want to paint with. I chose a few different shades of blues, greens, and yellows. Make sure to moisten each of your colors before starting to paint. You do this by dipping your brush in water and swirling and working the paint in it’s pot. If you have artist grade watercolors in a tube then prepare your watercolors in a recessed pallet.

 

TIP: Have plenty of fresh water for rinsing between colors. I actually like to have several cups of water to rinse my brush off. I used a cup for blues, one for the yellows, and one for the greens. It saves time and keeps your colors clean and vivid.

 

Working quickly, start to apply your paint in random areas, blending gently with the brush. The paint will resist the areas that have the rubber cement. Some droplets will remain on the rubber cement and that is just fine.

 

 

Once you are happy with how your colors look, allow it to dry completely, and I mean completely.  We set ours in the sun to dry. It took just a few minutes. Now comes the fun part! With clean fingers, gently rub off the rubber cement, revealing the white paper underneath. Warning: if you do not use a heavy weight watercolor paper then this will not work. You will end up ripping the paper as shown in the picture below. 

 

 

This picture below shows how it should rub off if you use a thick watercolor paper.

 

 

My daughter chose a frog and butterfly stencil to make two more pieces of art. Didn’t she do a great job? I found some inexpensive dollar store frames and placed the watercolors in them.

 

 

The colors go great in her turquoise and lime room.

 

 

In under an hour we had 3 beautiful and original pieces of watercolor resist artwork!

Here are some other pieces we’ve done in her room you might like.

 

Pottery Barn Teen Inspired Lantern Light Fixture

 

 

DIY Pottery Barn Teen Style Tile Board

 

 

 

In less than one hour we were finished painting with watercolors and were hanging the art on her wall! Don’t be fearful of painting, go pick up a brush and make some memories with your kiddos today!

 

Check out the Décor Crafts tab up top for more easy ideas!

 

Kim

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