This year’s preschool class loved art projects of any and all kinds! Out of all the art we did, though, our tape and watercolor art on canvas was a favorite. We made about four variations of it since the kiddos loved it so much!
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beautiful watercolor art kids can make using paint and tape
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Materials
White canvas
Washi tapes (My collection is from all over – you can find some HERE, HERE, and HERE)
Liquid watercolors (I use Sargent and Discount School Supply)
What the kids did
As I mentioned above, we did four different versions of this tape and watercolor art! For three of the canvases, the children added the washi tape first. Most of them were so meticulous in choosing which patterned tape to choose and where to place the pieces of tape. Others just loved adding as much tape as possible to the canvas (until their friends intervened and asked them to stop).
After the tape was placed on the canvas to everyone’s specification, it was time to paint! We placed some liquid watercolors into old glass jars, and the kids got to work. They painted the bits of canvas peeking out from between the strips of tape. I loved listening to them discuss which color would go where and working out who was painting next.
For the fourth watercolor and tape canvas, we did the process backwards. The children painted the canvas with watercolors first. They ended up experimenting with the different colors on the canvas – exploring color mixing, discussing how certain colors seemed thinner than others, etc. Once the paint was dried, they added the tape.
Personally, I loved how all of the canvases turned out! I know, I’m biased! 🙂 The tape didn’t stick as well to our last project, though. We were able to glue some of the errant tape down, so it wasn’t a big deal at all.
The benefits of this activity
Creating for creating’s sake is a big enough benefit of art, in my opinion. However, there were a variety of other benefits inherent to our project – cooperating with friends, conflict resolution, fine motor skills, and artistic expression!
Do your children love colorful tape as much as we do? Would they enjoy this tape and watercolor art project?
Very cool effect. Process art is my favorite.
You could do this with masking tape and have them remove the tape after the paint dried. You could add more tape and a different color and then remove that tape when it dried. My mom did this with my brother and I one time when we were both home sick. It was a project we all still talk about in our adult lives. And I have the artwork that is affectionately known as “Red,red,red”
Would this work just as well on card stock? I work in a daycare and canvas for each child would really get costly.
Hi Michelle! I think this would work well on card stock, but I haven’t tried it yet. Now I want to, though! 🙂