cminalaska ...

Love this idea. Sounds beautiful!

i have done the same as Janell did, using masking tape or blue painters tape. the masking tape will possibly tear a bit of the paper if you are not careful with removing it, the blue painters tape is better. i love the look of the framed edges from the unpainted paper, it gives a really nice look. and, if you don't press the tape down real hard, some of the paint will smear through and it gives a really nice artistic edge. 

makes me want to get our paints out! we're working through drawing and colored pencils right now.

We use Faber-Castell heavy weight water color paper and no problem with it.We did have problems with other brands though.

Thanks, Erin and Janell!  My 8yo LOVES art and will be so glad to get some pointers like this.  :)

We like to use blue masking tape (you can also use artist paper tape available at art stores) to tape down our paper to an artist board or directly to the table. We let the paper dry completely before unmasking. This allows the paper to dry flat leaving a nice unpainted edge that frames the painting.

You're welcome, Sarah. I'm learning as we go too! :) 

I have my kids stand and paint and the board rests flat on the table, though it's a shorter kid-size table. I'm sure that an easel would work too. 

I know that there are a lot of beautiful techniques to watercoloring and to painting in general, but we have only just begun to scratch the surface of art. It's sure fun though!

Thank you, Erin, for explaining all about watercolors. I have never used them and was at a loss. We did watch an artist paint a beautiful mountain scene with watercolors last week on pbs Create, but he did not explain these basics. Do you use the painting board on an easel?

Because we use wet paper we do not need to use much paint at all, and we do not add water to the paint. The watercolors in tubes are very rich in color and texture. We do use water to clean our brushes to move to the next color, but since our paper has been immersed in water we do not add water to the paints ... the paper is sufficiently wet. Hope that helps. :)

I'm not a water color expert either  (have dabbled in oils ages ago...)  - but I think (may be wrong) that water colour paints in a tube will still require a bit more water to make it right to work with.   But I might be totally out to lunch on that.....

Oh, OK, so "real" watercolors come already "mixed" with water?  Interesting!  Can you tell I am not an artist?  :P  Thanks for explaining and the link!

Hi Sara, We use this painting board though I'm sure you can find similar ones all over the place ... maybe Michaels or Joanns or Mardels? We're in Maine so this is local for us. :) 

We use 90lb watercolor paper and gently submerge it in water then promptly sponge it onto the painting board so that it is clean and flat and smooth. Then, we use watercolor paints (primary colors ... my girls mix the colors and make their own) from a tube (liquid) versus cake paints from a tray. 

Once the art is dry we can hang it up without it curling at the edges or wrinkling. 

I hope that helps. I don't know all of the fancy technique behind true wet-on-wet ... I just go with these basics and it works for us. :)

Erin

What is a painting board?  And what is "wet-on-wet" painting?  Maybe I really don't know what I'm doing with watercolors....  LOL

Great, thanks Erin!  I will see what happens after teh painting board, hope that helps. 

We use a painting board and wet-on-wet watercoloring which naturally lends itself to the paper drying flat.

Were the brushes too wet?  I'm not an expert on watercoloring, but it seems like when my kids use too much water the paper gets more crinkly than if they use just a little bit.