Salting, Bubble Prints And Sharpies; Seascapes

This project was done with my third graders towards the end of school. It combined several techniques.

The background was done with a watercolor wash and salting. We spent one day talking about the seascapes and how to do the watercolor wash. I find that the kids want to over blend the colors, so they need lots of guidance on this. Even with a discussion and demo, they tend to want to blend them completely together.

The second day they did watercolor printing with several colors; blue, pink, and orange. Then, they began creating a fish on a separate piece of paper with colored sharpies. They were free to do realistic fish or fantasy. 

Day three, students studied photographs of the reef to get some inspiration. Then they set to work putting together their seascapes.

They were free to use the bubble prints however they wanted, and add details with sharpie.

I really loved the layered, textures I think that part turned out great. And I think the kids did a great job coming up with unique seascapes.

I think tissue paper would also be a great material to add to these seascapes. I will have to add that to my materials list.