top of page
Search

Wet Materials 1: Tempura and Watercolors

  • Writer: Caroline Harding
    Caroline Harding
  • Nov 16, 2023
  • 8 min read

Tempura


Adjectives


Liquid, transparent, flowing, loose, movement, flat, pooling, light


Supporting materials
:

  • Water cups

  • Brushes

  • Paper towels

  • Sink and soap to wash hands and brushes

  • Pallets

  • Pallet knife

  • Apron

  • Spray bottle


Different brands and types:


Experimentation

Notes:

While I am sure that I have used tempura paint before, this is the first time that I remember actually working with it. In my experimentations, I played with how the medium flowed, layered, and blended in this study. Overall, the medium is very liquid, and it takes a couple of layers to create an opaque flat color. One nice thing about this medium is that it easily washes away if it is spilled on skin, clothes, or furniture. After testing out Tempura, I think that this medium can be used successfully when exploring the layering aspect of this painting.

Safety/health considerations

Many tempera paints are AP-certified and nontoxic, and they do not generally pose any health concerns. However, children should be instructed not to ingest the paints. Tempura paints such as Crayola Premier Tempera are able to be easily washed of skin and other materials due to their water-based properties. However, paint should not be purposefully applied to the skin. Most brands of tempera paint also advertise their tempera paints to be free from allergens. It can be challenging to find an entire list of ingredients within the paint, unlike other paint types. Regardless, compared to professional artists' paints, tempera paints are the safer option.


Data Safety Sheet for Crayola Premier & Artista II Tempera Paint: https://www.chemadvisor.com/Crayola/database/Crayola/msds/CRAY-053000400003.PDF 


Project ideas


This is an image I found online that is a good example of what this project could look like.


For a project with this material, I would embrace the liquidity and transparency of the material to design a project. The key idea behind this project would be layering to make different colors. I would ask students to create a design composed of a bunch of one object (for example, leaves, dogs, apples, etc.) Then they would pick two complementary colors to create a wide variety of hues with. They would have to make sure that no one hue is put side by side. This would challenge students to work on color mixing and layering.


Accommodation possibilities
:

  • Adaptive big/easy grip brushes for students working on their grip strength and fine motor skills

  • Tempura sticks can work for students who need additional support when creating art

  • Gloves for students with sensory issues

Appropriate age group and behavioral expectations

Tempura paint has been designed to purposefully be a very safe paint for younger students to use. Additionally, because of its water-based properties, it is also very easy to clean up spills and any messes that happen when creating art. One other fact about tempura is that it is watery, so it is easy to get marks down on the paper and mix paint around. Considering these facts, tempura is an appropriate medium to use for young children, ideally pre-K-4th grade. For more advanced students or those in 5th grade or beyond, I would focus on working with acrylic paint because they would be developmentally ready, and acrylic paint is generally a higher-pigmented and quality medium.


Artist resources


Antonio Pisanello

Pisanello, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. Pisanello is known for his resplendent frescoes in large murals, elegant portraits, small easel pictures, and many brilliant drawings. He is the most important commemorative portrait medallist in the first half of the 15th century, and he can claim to have originated this important genre. Pisanello had many of his works wrongly ascribed to other artists, such as Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Dürer, and Leonardo da Vinci, to name a few. While most of his paintings have perished, a good many of his drawings and medals have survived.



“Portrait of Ginevra d'Este,” by Antonio Pisanello, 1434. Egg tempera on wood, 17 in × 12 in.


“The Virgin and Child with Saints Anthony Abbot and George,” by Antonio Pisanello, 1435-41. Egg tempera on poplar, 18.3 x 11.4 in.

Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Wyeth often said: "I paint my life."


“Little Caldwells Island,” by Andrew Wyeth, 1940. Tempera on panel, 32 x 40 in.


“Christina's World,” by Andrew Wyeth, 1948. Tempera on panel, 32 1/4 x 47 in.


Watercolor


Adjectives


Watery, transparent, flowy, liquid, layer-able, permanent, slow, spontaneous, unpredictable


Supporting materials
:

  • Water cups

  • Watercolor brushes

  • Paper towels

  • Sink and soap to wash hands and brushes

  • Pallets

  • Apron

  • Pencils

  • Erasers (kneaded and plastic or vinal)

  • Spray bottle

  • Masking fluid

  • Watercolor paper (cold or hot press)


Brands and associated quality/cost:


Experimentation


Notes:

Watercolor is a very liquid medium because it primarily relies on water to activate the medium. Because of this, it is very free-flowing and can oftentimes be unpredictable. It isn't until the layer of watercolor is dry that you will really see what it looks like. With this medium, you have to be willing to let go and let the medium have the space to do what it wants to do. You can have a little more control if you choose to paint wet on dry instead of wet on wet, but even still, unexpected things can occur. Additionally, while watercolor can be reactivated, it is extremely difficult to completely remove something that you previously put down. For this reason, it is important that you work light to dark, slowly adding layers to achieve your desired result. It can be hard to wait for something to dry, but if you rush watercolor, then you will most likely mess up and have to start over. There are a lot of different techniques you can do with watercolor, including using salt, paper towels, and alcohol drops to create interesting effects.


One thing to note is that there are many different types of watercolors. For example, there are pans, tubes, liquid concentrate, pencils, and markers. Each different form of watercolor has different strengths and weaknesses. However, the pan sets of watercolors are a good trustworthy avenue to rely on when exploring this medium.


Other Example:

This is a 44" x 30" watercolor painting that I have recently completed for one of my painting classes. In this painting, I used only ultramarine blue and yellow ochre pigment.


Safety/health considerations


Both the dry cake and liquid watercolors are generally safe to use and do not require ventilation. Some professional-grade watercolors do contain unsafe ingredients like cadmium, cobalt, and gum Arabic, which should be avoided. There are usually substitute hues for those paints, which should be utilized to prevent exposing students to dangerous chemicals. Furthermore, while some watercolors may contain a small amount of formaldehyde, a preservative, this is not enough to pose a health risk.



Project ideas


Watercolor imaginary garden or alien landscape

This is an image I found online that is a good example of what this project could look like.


For this project idea, I would task students with creating an imaginary garden or alien landscape. They would be required to create this using watercolor and using at least three different techniques that we have previously explored (wet on wet, wet on dry, salt, towel blotting, alcohol drops, etc.). This project would help them explore and play with watercolor while challenging them to push the medium to its limits to help add interesting elements to their image.


Accommodation possibilities
:

  • Adaptive big/easy grip brushes for students working on their grip strength and fine motor skills

  • Gloves for students with sensory issues

  • Watercolor brushes that store water inside them can be used to help students with fine motor challenges

  • Pallet watercolors can be used and labeled for students with vision challenges


Appropriate age group and behavioral expectations


Students of all ages can use watercolor. for younger students, I would have them use watercolor pallets to experiment with color mixing and learn how to use the material. Overall, pallet watercolor is easier to navigate and less expensive. Older or more advanced students in the middle to high school range can start experimenting with other forms of watercolor, such as liquid or pencil form. They should be able to apply a variety of techniques to their papers to achieve a lot of different effects and marks.


Artist resources


Emma Larson

Emma Larson is an abstract watercolor painter. Larsson’s watercolors, paintings, collages, and sculptures are in constant flow. She describes her creative process as the synergy between the artist, the material, and an unknown presence that she calls “force.” Emma’s paintings are purely intuitive, sourcing from pleasure and freedom. She finds most of her inspiration in nature’s shapes, colors, and patterns, leading to abstract and moving forms in her paintings. In her work, she embraces the fluid nature of watercolor and wet-on-wet techniques allowing edges to bleed and shapes to morph.


“Organic Flow II,” by Emma Larsson, 2022. Watercolor and ink on paper, 30 × 22 in


“Water Color Sculpture II,” by Emma Larsson, 2021. Watercolor and ink on paper, 30 × 22 in


Eudes Correia

Eudes Correia is an artist from Brazil who settled in Lisbon. He started his artistic career quite early, working as a graphic designer and illustrator, but later on, he found himself paying all his attention to watercolor. Eudes's paintings depict common people: tourists and people on the street, kids and adults, men and women. Focusing on these unremarkable average people, the artist discerns their unique individuality and captures it on paper.


"Cuidado De Mãe (Care Of Mother)," by Eudes Correia, N.D. Watercolor On Paper, 15 x 22 in.


“Germany Girls,” by Eudes Correia, N.D. Watercolor, 22 x 30 in.



Project: color investigation


Tempura color wheel pallet using Olivia Gude's Freeform Color Investigation activity

This was the first stage of this assigned project, where I only had different shades of green. The back paper used as the base clearly shows how transparent and streaky the medium can be.


This is the final image of my color pallet project. I chose the shape rectangle and explored the color green along with its complimentary component, red. Because this medium was so watery, it did warp the black construction paper I used as my base.


Project: African Penguin


The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. They can be found along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. Once extremely numerous, the African penguin is declining rapidly due to a combination of several threats and is classified as endangered. These threats include global warming, overfishing, changing water currents, noise pollution, and trash pollution. However, it is a very charismatic species and is popular with tourists in the area. For this project, I chose to depict this bird using watercolor in the water to relate to how important water is for its survival and some of the threats that this species is under.


This is the first layer I did for the black part of the body. I kept it light so that I could build more layers on top.


This is how the body looked before I added my final layers of dark shadows on the black parts.


This is how the image turned out before I decided to use a white and black pen to outline certain sections to help the image stand out and not blend together.


This is the final image for this project. Overall, I like how this project turned out. I think that the paper I used was not the best quality because it created an unusual granular texture that I don’t get when I use cotton paper. However, I like how the water patterns turned out in the end and framed the body of the penguin.

Recent Posts

See All

Коментарі

© 2023 by Caroline Harding. Powered and secured by Wix

bottom of page