Watercolor Textures with Salt and Plastic Wrap

Here are two simple watercolor 'texture' painting techniques I've seen all over the web, which I've wanted to try for some time.  So when the kids wanted to watercolor paint their coloring pages today, I thought I'd give it a try.

First wet your paper (learned that it's best to get it really wet by running water on both sides of the paper until it is almost translucent, but doesn't fall apart).  Then do some watercolor painting, covering the sheet:

We worked on the one above together.  I was originally planning on trying the plastic-wrap technique on this one, but the paper was too try when we were done, so we tried sprinkling salt on it instead (both E and L loved this part).  When the painting was (mostly) dry, the girls and I took a look at it in the sunlight:

I love the 'snow' effect the salt creates.  This would be wonderful for children's artwork with a winter/snow theme.

Then L helped me paint another piece of paper (this time making sure it was really wet before we started painting).  When we were done covering the paper, we put wrinkled plastic wrap on top:

You're supposed to wait until the paint is completely dry before removing the plastic wrap, but the kids (or Mommy), couldn't wait..  Here is the result:

What a neat texture!  These would be so beautiful for making greeting cards or backgrounds for unique art.  We'll be experimenting with these techniques again, for sure.

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