Using Markers, Water and Watercolors on Sunflowers.

For this drawing, I picked 3 of Expressive Monkey's Sunflower Description Cards to create the design of my sunflower.  There are 16 description cards in the set, as you can see, I used number 15, 1 and 4 for this combination.  When I was finished, I went over my pencil lines with a Sharpie marker. 

I used Crayola washable markers (but regular non-washable markers work too) and created some thick outlines for each shape.  Darker colors work best, so I'm a little curious if the yellow will show much when I go over it with water.

This is what it looks like when I'm finished outlining each shape with markers.

I'm painting in each shape with plain water.  I'm making sure that the marker area gets wet so that it will "bleed" into the white area.  I'm careful to stay inside each shape and only do one shape at a time, though, so the color only goes where I want it to go.

In the table top area, I've created a line design that reminds me of Vincent van Gogh's brushstrokes.  I'm painting over the entire table top area and letting the colors all bleed together.

I decided to add some watercolor to this painting because the yellow didn't fill in the petals as much as I wanted it to.  I also added a light watercolor wash of blue in the background.  A watercolor wash is when you use very diluted watercolors to cover a large area.  

Here is what the finished picture looks like! 

If you are interested in getting the description cards, click on the link below.  This lesson comes with a presentation on Vincent van Gogh, a dice drawing game, the description cards, a writing activity and a matching activity.  Labels and rubrics are also included. 

Integrated Art Lesson: Van Gogh's Sunflowers