Our heart sunburst painting idea makes watercolor painting with kids super fun and encourages kids to fully experience color through creative play and experimentation.
With the option to use our sunburst printable templates, children are free to learn how to use and apply watercolor paint through experimentation. The heart art project is open to many learning outcomes and can be applied to studying color, color creation, blending, watercolor application and mixed media composition.
Kids’ will love the simplicity of this art project, that allows for their creativity to be freely applied and explored. The sunburst can be a simple color study, with children playing with a few colors to create different shades and tones OR it may evolve into a full cool/warm, doodle and abstract extravaganza – the key objective of this sunburst painting idea is to have fun and play.
This is a great art project to try with the kids at home or within the classroom, and is guaranteed to produce colorful results!
Watercolor Painting with Kids:
Watercolor paint is a fantastic medium for children who are learning to paint. They’re so much fun to use and are a great way for children to explore and fully experience colors.
Playing with water to paint ratios and mixing colors will create lots of interesting results and textures, which adds an immersive and experimental element to the process.
Watercolor Dots
Before delving into the heart art project, Arty Crafty Kids should spend a few minutes getting familiar with the watercolor paint…
Take a sheet of card stock or watercolor paper and experiment with water ratios.
Start with one color and apply a tiny amount of water to the brush and paint a dot. With such little water, the color will be bold and difficult to spread. The edges of the dot may also be rough and jagged in appearance.
Next, apply more water to the brush and spread the paint onto the inside of the mixing tin or mixing palette.
Paint a second dot. With just a little extra water, the dot should retain the bold pigment of the paint, but will be noticeably easier to spread and the outline of the dot will be smooth.
Little by little, continue adding water to the paint on the mixing palette. Create a new dot with each water addition and observe how the color dilutes with each application.
Challenge – How many new shades can Arty Crafty Kids create of each color on their watercolor palette?
Paint the Rainbow
Using the dot process, Arty Crafty Kids may advance their exploration of color and fill the sunburst template with all the colors of the rainbow to create a striking piece of heart art!
Heart Sunburst Watercolor Painting for Kids: A Step by Step Tutorial
Materials
- White card stock, watercolor or mixed media paper
- Watercolor Paint Palette
- Acrylic Paint
- Black Marker Pen
- Optional: Fine Tipped Black Ben & Colored Marker Pens
Download the Sunburst Templates:
The templates are available to members of the Arty Crafty Kids club.
Members will need to log in to access the templates: https://www.artycraftykids.com/product/heart-art-sunburst-templates/
Not A Member?
Watch the Heart Sunburst Painting Video Tutorial:
Let’s Make Heart Art!
Draw the Sunburst Lines Around the Heart
Select a heart sunburst template to print onto white card stock or watercolor/mixed media paper.
Our example features the heart without a sunburst!
How to Draw a Sunburst
Using a ruler and a black marker pen (or pencil), start by dividing the page in half with a single vertical line.
Next, draw a series of angled lines around the heart.
Arty Crafty Kids are free to measure the distance between lines, increase or decrease their density OR just go with what feels right. This is an opportunity for children to again experiment and add a little math to their art.
Heart Sunburst Painting: Apply the Watercolor Paints
Once the sunburst is drawn, it’s time to add some color!
How to Blend Watercolor Paint
The rays of the sunburst are open to experimentation and all colors.
To create a graduation of color and shade within a ray, apply the darkest color (red) first along the border of the heart and spread just a few cm’s away from the first stroke. Then add a lighter second color (orange) to join the first and again spread. Repeat with the a final color (yellow) to complete the ray.
Next, brush over the ray with a small amount of water to help blend the colors.
Use the Sunburst to Explore Color and Tone
The sunburst painting idea can be tailored to many artistic and creative learning outcomes.
Here, we’re experimenting with color graduations and contrasts between cool and warm tones.
Once the sunburst is brimming with color, paint the heart one solid color (ideally with acrylic paint) to create a “pop art” effect.
Fill the Sunburst Rays with Doodle Patterns
Another way to expand the heart sunburst project is to draw doodles within the rays!
Drawing patterns and lines spontanously is a great way for children to engage their creativity. It’s fabulous for relaxation and will bring an element mindfulness to the creative process.
Watercolor Painting with Kids: Techniques they’ll Love to Try!
Watercolor paints are easy to use, inexpensive, create beautiful colors and can be applied in lots of fun and experimental ways.
Our Favourite Watercolor Techniques…
The Arty Crafty Kids have tried and tested many watercolor techniques. Here are a few of our favorites:
Watercolor Wet on Wet Application
The easiest and most common watercolor technique for kids to try! Very simply, start by brushing a light layer of clean water across the page. Next, apply the watercolor paint onto the wet paper. Add a second (or however many you like) color to the paper and watch the paint mix, creating gorgeous watery patterns as the colors meet. Kids will be mesmerised by this process. If you try wet on wet watercolor painting at home, I recommend using liquid watercolors or tubed watercolors mixed with water (just make sure the colors are dark enough before painting).
Watercolor Salt Painting
This is another fascinating process and one we’ve explored time and time again on the blog (salt painted butterfly). Use one of our animal templates and add a layer PVA glue from a squeezy bottle along the outline. Cover the glue with salt and remove the excess. Next, dip the paintbrush into some watercolor paint and dab it directly onto the salt. The paint will quickly spread across the salt. Dab lots of different colors across the salty lines and watch the colors blend.
Watercolor Resist Painting
Watercolor resist can be explored with black ( or white)glue, melted crayon, tape,yarn, oil pastel and wax crayon.
More Paintings Ideas for Kids:
If you are looking for more fun, easy and engaging painting ideas for kids, take a look at these popular ideas!
