Coconut tree in resist - watercolour.

Greetings! 

Who doesn't love the sight of coconut trees swaying by a sandy beach? I know I do. Let's take a trip to the tropics and paint a beautiful Coconut tree in resist watercolour!

Fun-fact, did you know, every part of the coconut tree is useful  to humans? In India it also called, 'Kalpa-vriksha' or wish-fulfilling tree. The coconut gives us oil, the exterior of the nut gives us coir, from which we can make strong rope, its fronds can be used to make a thatched roof and so on. Now that we know a little about this giving tree let's begin our art project!

Coconut tree in watercolour resist.

You will need

• Paper ~ an absorbent and thick paper is always good for watercolours. I'm using a half-imperial or A5 size sheet.

• Pencil to draw

• Oil pastels or if you have wax crayons that's ok too

• Watercolour cake box or tubes

• Brush, a no.6 or 7 will do.

•Bowls, I always suggest two, one for cleaning the brush, one for mixing paint.

• small cloth or paper towel for wiping brushes and mopping spills and messes made by little hands.

1) Draw your Coconut tree big enough to cover most of your paper.

2) Tracing your drawing in oil pastels~ Trace with colourful oil pastels  or  use only white. This art lesson is a resist method, meaning, when we  paint it will not adhere to the crayon lines, thus  creating a very interesting effect!

3) Painting ~

• Wet your brush, using only water, brush the entire surface of the paper, taking care not to make it soggy.

• Begining with the fronds of the tree, paint with watercolours. Since the paper is wet, the colours will spread easily and bleed into each other. This method is called wet into wet.

• I've used light and dark green in the fronds, magenta for the evening sky, and a purple, cobalt and cerulean for the water, browns with a bit of crimson for tree trunk, earth and of course yellow for the sun

Allow your paper to dry and voilà, your Coconut tree in watercolour resist is done! 

Time to take a look at this week's little artists ☺️ 

Hope this lesson is helpful especially to anyone looking for art activities to do at home during this pandemic or for your virtual classroom.  Be safe and well, and do check out my other art lessons, please say hello in the comments, or email me, if you have any requests. I am always thinking of what to teach next and ideas are always welcome. 

See you in another post!

~Sabrina.