The other week I saw this terrific idea on AmandaChristina’s blog Hearts and Trees. She has a series of posts teaching basic watercolor techniques to kids. Last week’s technique involved making a wash and then flicking, dripping or dabbing rubbing alcohol onto the still-wet surface to create a really interesting texture and pattern. Click on over to see a great explanation and video… it’s okay, I’ll wait.
We gathered our supplies: watercolor paint (we chose black), flat brush, watercolor paper, water, old cloth diaper for drying/cleaning the brush, rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab.
JediBoy covered the paper with a black wash. I explained that he could just do a square or rectangle in the center of the paper, but he wanted this to be outer space which is, of course, entirely black with no white edges.
JediBoy started by dabbing on the rubbing alcohol with the cotton swab, making these neat concentric circles.
On his next sheet, he got a little more free-spirited and started flicking and dripping the alcohol onto the paper, amazed at the reaction taking place before him.
He made a series of these black wash with alcohol paintings to go along with our space theme (like the giant cardboard planetarium in our living room). It was a really great technique that we’d never tried with watercolor. Thanks, AmandaChristina!
It is great to see your son take the idea and really make it his own. 
