Pastel and Watercolor Castles

Sweet Pea is 4 years old.

From:  Sweet Pea loves princesses and castles so when I saw Deep Space Sparkle’s Kinder Watercolor Castles, I knew Sweet Pea would be super excited  to make one.

Material:

• Several small bowls of  diluted liquid water colors (or food coloring).
• Oil pastels.  (We used a box of my old Cray-Pas, but I read that Crayola brand pastels are designed for kids and not so messy.  You might be able to use regular crayons, but I don’t think the “resist” effect would be so pronounced.  Leave me a comment if you try it with crayon and let me know how it works.)
• Paint brush.  (Paintbrushes from Crayola are my favorite for kids.)
• Drawing paper.

Procedure:

• It will be easiest if you draw a castle at the same time your tot draws his own separate one, so that he can copy each step as you show it to him.
• Using oil pastels, draw the castle one step at a time, allowing your tot to finish each step before moving on to the next one:

1. Draw 3 lines, one along each side and one along bottom of the paper.  The lines should be long, but not go all the way to the edges.
2. Turn the 2 lines on the sides into “towers” by creating rectangles out of them.
3. Connect the 2 towers with another line.
4. Add a door, merlons, and turrets.
5. Draw another line below the top one to create a walkway.   Add detail to the door.
6. Draw windows.
7. Add brick detail.
8. Add more design detail.
9. Paint over the entire castle with liquid  watercolors.

• The castle is easy to draw, but I found the written instructions at Deep Space Sparkle a little difficult to follow, so I took step-by-step photos so you can see how to do it.

Observations: Both Sweet Pea and I enjoyed this and I think our castles turned out so fun and colorful.   (Just in case you are wondering what is on her head, Sweet Pea was wearing a slip as a “princess veil”.  She came up with that idea all on her own.  lol.)

This technique is very forgiving.  I think both of our castles turned out great.

I liked that this activity allowed Sweet Pea to work on following directions, but still  left enough room for her to be creative.

It requires quite a bit of parental involvement, but it is a good art lesson for preschoolers and up.

Notes from the Trenches:

The oil pastels smudge and generally get all over hands, arms and unprotected clothing.

Also, our pastels are got colored grease on the paint brushes which was very hard to wash out.  I had to use soap and even then I don’t think I got it all out.

Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Frugal)