Watercolor For Young Artists ~ A Timberdoodle Review

I received Watercolor For Young Artists from Timberdoodle in exchange for 

my honest opinion. The views expressed in this review are my honest opinion. 

Watercolor For Young Artists is one of the many NEW products coming available to Timberdoodle's  website on April 15th! This fun kit comes with all of the supplies needed for your child to create the 13 projects covered in the detailed instructional book included. The set comes with watercolor paper, watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, paintbrushes of various sizes, a sponge, a pencil, and a pencil sharpener. This Watercolor For Young Artists is recommended for ages 8 and up.

So just what will your child be creating with this kit? These are the following projects included:

• Monocrome ~ Sailboat and Lighthouse on the Water
• Painting Wet-On-Wet ~ Frog on Lily Pads
• Warm & Cool Colors ~ Tennis Players on Planets
• Landscape ~ Trees with a Path and a Painter
• Glazes ~ Abstract Art
• Volume ~ Bowling Alley with Pins and Balls
• Reserves ~ Stairs and Doors
• Using a Sponge ~ A Cat in a Tree with a Fireman coming to the Rescue
• Drawing with Watercolors ~ A Turtle by the Seashore
• Textures ~ A Plane Flying Above a City
• Scratching ~ A Girl with Crazy Hair on a Hill
• Splatters ~ Making Splatters
• Moonscape ~ Aliens on a Planet

There are several pages at the beginning of the the spiral Watercolor painting easy-to-follow lessons which include the following:

• tools & materials
• stretching your paper
• painting with watercolors
• how to mix watercolors
• watercolors & color

In these pages are so many wonderful tips. Did you know that you are supposed to start with your lightest colors first, then gradually add your darkest colors? When you paint one color over another once the first color is dry, this technique is called glazing. Your student will learn caring for their art tools as well as how to use watercolor pencils and the many techniques of watercolor painting. Illustrations are provided so that the student can see what is being explained.

The first two projects have outlines of the subject to be painted. This is a great introduction into watercolors and perfect way to get their feet wet and not be so intimidated by the whole experience.

Painting Wet-On-Wet 

As you can see the outline of the frogs on the lily pads is provided as a guide.

Step-by-step instructions both written as well as painted are given so that the

student has both a written and visual guide to complete the project.

Everything that the student will need is included in the set. All that your
student will need is a container of water and a paper towel to dab
the paint brush in between colors.

Monochrome

This sailboat picture is the second lesson in the book. It too has the
outline of the picture. After this your student is ON THEIR OWN when it
comes to drawing and replicating the paintings 

besides the step-by-step pictures on how to draw a few of the objects.

Again, as you can see clear instructions are given in order for the
student to successfully complete to given project.

Landscape

Included in the kit is a spiral, flip instructional book that has step-by-step
instructions for all 13 projects. My daughter was able to easily stand the
book up alongside this jar of paint brushes.

Glazes

The technique used in this abstract painting was called glazing. 

Glazing is when you paint one layer of color, wait for it to dry and then paint 

over it with another color. These colors then combine to create another new color. 

Reserves 

This project called for a candle. You were supposed to use the
candle to draw in the outline of the picture. The candle wax then
keeps the paint from going onto that area that the wax is on. Pretty cool!

 Also, masking tape is used to seal off some of
the space on the paper. This technique is called reserve. 
Reserve is basically an area in a painting that you do not want
paint to go and that you want to remain white. In other words,

when the tape is taken off it leaves white space where the
tape was. This is the reserve. If you look real close you can
see where the candle wax is. This technique is called resist. It
kind of sounds like what you are attempting to do. You are 

attempting to resist paint from getting onto the paper. In this painting
the area in which resist was used was candle wax. For some reason
our candle wax did not quite work so well. There are a few very small

areas that remained white, but for the most part paint coloring into the
resist area. You can see the outline of the resist especially the scalloped area. 

Of course, our painting did not turn out anything like the painting in the spiral
booklet but that it okay. It is the fun and learning that counts.

Watercolor For Young Artists is definitely a kit that I would recommend.
It has educational and artistic value. My 11-year-old daughter had fun 

creating the artwork in this kit. If you would like to purchase
Watercolor For Young Artists simply click the link.