Watercolour painting for kids: Easy tips & ideas

From dreamy landscapes and colourful sunsets to rainbow washes and dot painting, each idea encourages kids to experiment with colour, texture and technique — all while having fun. Get ready to dip, swirl and splash your way into the wonderful world of watercolours!

It's really easy to get started with watercolour painting, but there are a few supplies we would suggest picking up. Using watercolour paper, such as these sheets from Amazon, is more beneficial than using regular paper, and you will, of course, need a good watercolour paint set to get started (we'd suggest this paint and brush set from Amazon). Using a paint palette, such as this set from Amazon, with a dedicated reservoir for water is also beneficial, to make it easier to mix your colours with water.

Flower watercolour painting | Watercolour landscape painting | Cute watercolour painting | Sunset watercolour painting | Watercolour dot painting | Rainbow watercolour

Flower watercolour painting

You will need:

• A pencil
• White paper
• Scissors
• Watercolour paper
• Paint palette and water dish
• Watercolor paint
• Paintbrushes
• Coarse salt
• Gluestick
• Coloured card

Easy flower watercolour painting guide for kids:

1. Draw large flower and small and large circle templates onto white paper, then cut them out
2. Trace the flower onto watercolour paper
3. Choose 2 or 3 colours for their flowers
4. Paint the flower drawings with clean water first, you want the paper to be fairly wet but not soaking
5. Start to paint the flowers with the watercolours — remind kids to rinse their brushes in between colours
6. Let the wet paint mix together on the paper, as the paint mixes and starts to dry, it should create interesting patterns and also different variations in the colours
7. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle on coarse salt. You can sprinkle on just a little salt in a couple of areas, or sprinkle salt all over the flowers. As the salt dries, it soaks up some of the water and paint and creates even more patterns
8. Leave the painting to dry completely on a flat surface
9. Once the paint is dry, brush the salt off and cut out the flowers
10. Choose two colours of card for the centre of the flower, then using the circle templates, trace, and cut the circles out
11. Start with a bigger circle and cut lines all the way around towards the centre — remind kids not to cut all the way through
12. Use a glue stick to glue the circle to the centre of the flower
13. Repeat with the smaller circle. Cut lines all the way around and glue it to the centre of the larger circle.

Credit: Projects with Kids

Watercolour landscape painting

You will need:

• Watercolour paints
• Small bowl or jar of water
• Watercolor paintbrush (Large flat and small round)
• Paint palette and water dish
• Watercolour paper
• Paper towel

Watercolour landscape painting guide for kids:

1. Dip a paintbrush in water and add water to your water dish to create a 'puddle' next to the watercolour paints
2. Choose the colour you would like the landscape to be, then add your chosen paint colour to the 'puddle' to create your paint
3. Paint your entire piece of watercolour paper using a large flat paintbrush, sweeping the brush from left to right and slightly overlapping the previous line
4. Leave the paint to dry
5. Once the background is dry, dip your paintbrush in your chosen colour and start to create the mountaintops in the distance on the background by painting from left to right — tell your kids to picture mountains in their mind as they paint, they can decide whether their painted mountains should plateau or be huge and climbing, and try and paint accordingly
6. Once they've created their mountaintops, take the same colour then paint and glaze down the whole piece of paper
7. Leave the layer to dry
8. Still using the same colour (but you can add more paint to your mixture to make it darker), add another layer of mountains underneath your first set and fill it in with paint all the way to the bottom of the paper then leave to dry
9. Optional: repeat to add as many layers of mountains as you like
10. Once your paint is dry, start adding trees to the landscape (you can continue using the same colour or try and add a different colour for the trees). Using the small round brush, start painting near the top of the paper and paint lines that point down and curve slightly outward in opposite directions, until you reach the bottom of the sheet
11. Repeat across the page with different sized trees

Credit: Mr. Otter Art Studio

Cute watercolour painting

You will need:

• Pencil
• Scissors
• White paper
• Watercolour paper
• Watercolour paint
• Paintbrush
• Black oil pastel
• Water dish

Cute watercolour painting guide for kids:

1. Draw and cut out heart templates with at least 2 different sizes
2. Trace the hearts onto a piece of watercolour paper with a pencil. Make sure to have some hearts overlapping (try and use different sized-heart when overlapping)
3. Take a black oil pastel and trace the pencil lines — be careful not to smudge the pastel as you trace
4. Choose the colours you would like for the hearts — use as many or as few as you wish! You can use a watercolour paint set or liquid watercolours for this step
5. Start painting the hearts, being careful not to smudge the oil pastel — remember to clean the brushes before starting a new colour. Ideally, you want each piece of the heart to be painted a different colour, so one heart can be painted two or even three colours depending on how the hearts were drawn
6. Continue painting the hearts until all of the hearts have been painted, then leave the paint to dry on a flat surface
7. Once the paint is dry, paint the background with clean water and a clean brush first, then choose two or three colours for the background
8. Make sure the paper is wet but not soaking and then start to paint with your colours. Go slowly and carefully so you don’t paint inside the hearts. Once finished painting the background, let the paper dry completely on a flat surface

Credit: Projects with Kids

Sunset watercolour painting

You will need:

• Pencil
• Watercolour paper
• Watercolour paint
• Watercolour paintbrushes
• Water in a small bowl/jar

Sunset watercolour guide for kids:

1. Using a pencil, draw two 'hills' near the bottom third of your paper (draw two bumpy lines across the paper)
2. Paint the paper with water on the hills and just above, to about half way up the piece of paper
3. Dip your brush in yellow paint and make strokes over the wet paper. On the right hand side, try to leave a circular shape lighter for the sun (you can also take a paper towel and dab off to make a shape for the sun)
4. Add water to the space above the yellow paint, then dip your brush in orange paint (remember to clean the brush before starting a new colour). Make brush strokes on top then bring them downwards, making a few strokes on the yellow part too
5. Add water to the top of the page above the orange paint, then dip your brush in red paint and repeat the same process as before, dragging the red paint down on the sides of the orange paint to reach the yellow
6. Take some brown paint and start filling in the right side of the bottom of the paper, down to the where it meets the other hill line
7. Outline the other hill line with black paint, then fill in the bottom of the paper
8. Once the paint has dried, feel free to add embellishments like trees onto the hills and birds in the sky using a thin paintbrush

Credit: AhmadArt

Watercolour Dot painting

You will need:

• Circular shape (such as a glass) to draw around
• Light-coloured pencil
• Watercolour paper
• Watercolour paints
• Water in a small bowl/jar
• Cotton buds (one for each colour of paint)

Watercolour dot painting guide for kids:

1. Using a light-coloured pencil, draw around a circular shape, such as a glass, in the centre of watercolour paper
2. Take a cotton bud and touch it briefly into the water, then dab it into your starting colour
3. Paint a row of dots along the inside of the circle line you drew earlier. Once the paint starts to fade, dip it into the paint again and carry on creating your circle. Tip: Try and paint the dots so they're quite close together (you shouldn't be able to fit your finger between them) but so they don't touch
4. Once you've completed the circle, take another cotton bud and dip into a different colour, then create another circle of dots inside your first circle
5. Repeat with different colours until you reach the middle of the circle
6. You could then take your light-coloured pencil and draw guide lines to help you carry on your dot pattern outside of the circle. For example, you could draw two wavy lines across the paper, above and below the circle of dots and dot paint across the lines
7. Keep creating lines of dots around the circle, you can choose whatever pattern and colours you wish!

Credit: Lindsay Harrington - Elementary Art Teacher

Rainbow watercolour

You will need:

• Paper plates
• Scissors
• Watercolour paints
• Watercolour paintbrushes
• Water in a small bowl/jar
• Optional: cotton balls and glue

Rainbow watercolour guide for kids:

1. Use your scissors to cut your paper plate in half
2. Dip your brush in red paint and paint the outer rim of the paper plate
3. Continue painting below with each colour of the rainbow (orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet if you have all the colours!)
4. Optional: once the paint dries, glue some cotton balls across the bottom edges of the plate to create clouds

Credit: Kid Made Modern

Top pic: Getty

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