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You are here: Home / Create / Art Projects / Process Art: Painting with Liquid Watercolors and Droppers

February 3, 2014 By Chelsey 42 Comments

Process Art: Painting with Liquid Watercolors and Droppers

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You’ll definitely want to try our latest art process art project– painting with pipettes and watercolors. This classic art activity for kids is always a hit and is fun for all ages- toddler, preschool, kindergarten and on up. We used droppers and liquid watercolors to create really colorful and interesting art- such a fun activity for little hands and great fine motor practice too!

Follow our Art for Kids Pinterest board!

 

Painting with Watercolors and Droppers (Art for Kids)

(This post contains affiliate links.)

 

Watercolors always seem to be our go-to art material when we’re looking for something quick and easy. (Be sure to check out these other projects using watercolors: Colorful Newspaper Snowflakes and Tide Pool Art for Kids.) So today when I was trying to think of an easy project to keep my poor sick little guy occupied, I grabbed our usual favorite material- watercolors!

This watercolor activity uses pipettes or droppers and is so fun and mesmerizing to watch. Kids love seeing how the colors mix and bleed together.

 

More Fun Art Activities


 

 

Art for Kids: Painting with Watercolors and Droppers

This project was actually more fun than I bargained for- Theo had a BLAST observing the unusual patterns and colors spreading over his paper!  And it also doubled as a learning experience. Theo has never used a dropper before, so he felt quite a bit of pride learning a new skill (and I loved he was getting in some much need fine motor practice while gaining confidence in creating too).

 

Materials for Process Art Project

  • Watercolor paper (This is my favorite art paper. It’s inexpensive and works for a variety of art materials.)
  • Liquid watercolors (Our absolute favorite liquid watercolors!)
  • Droppers or pipettes
  • Medium paintbrush
  • Containers to hold your paint and water

 

paint water on paper

 

Start by painting your whole sheet of watercolor paper with water.

 

using a dropper with watercolors

 

Add your liquid watercolors to some containers. (You can water them down a bit or leave them as is for more vibrancy.)

Place a dropper or pipette in each container. (You can also use an ice cube tray to hold you paints!)

Theo had never used a dropper before so we practiced with it for quite a while- just sucking watercolors into the dropper and squeezing them out over and over!

 

Art for Kids: Painting with Watercolors and Droppers

 

Now fill a dropper with some watercolor, and squeeze out one drop onto your paper. Watch what happens! Keep adding more and more to create some beautiful art!

 

Art for Kids: Painting with Watercolors and Droppers

 

Theo decided to see what would happen when he dropped paints on top of each other.

 

Looking at his painting

 

He loved the results!

 

Toddler Watercolor Painting

 

“I make butterfly, Mommy!”

 

Painting with two droppers

 

Then he discovered that painting with two droppers is also really fun!

 

making an x

 

And he was also pretty excited that he could make the letter ‘x’ with two droppers. “X, Mommy!!”  I got to see that ‘x’ at least 20 times today!

Tip: If your child ends up covering their entire paper with tons of liquid, take a paper towel and press it onto the paper to soak up the liquid. It will help it dry more quickly and leave a cool texture-like design.

 

Watercolors and droppers

 

Theo ended up creating quite a bit of art with this technique! I’ll definitely be pulling this quick and easy painting activity out again!

 

Creating Unique Art with Watercolors and Droppers~ Buggy and Buddy


Find more hands-on activities in our ebook! Learn more about it here, or buy it now here!

Fizz, Pop, Bang! 40 Playful Science and Math Activities for Kids

Filed Under: Art Projects, Preschool, toddler Tagged With: droppers, liquid watercolors, preschool activities, process art, toddler

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Comments

  1. Veens says

    February 3, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    This one is easy to set -up and so fun! Will have to do this with Aarya and I am sure he is going to love it 🙂

    Reply
  2. Emma @ P is for Preschooler says

    February 3, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    How great for fine motor skills! He certainly looks like he enjoyed it – and the end result is lovely too!

    Reply
  3. Jo says

    February 4, 2014 at 3:25 am

    If you don’t have water colours, water and food colouring works well too. I normally let the kids do it on a folded piece of paper towel and when you open it up, it’s awesome.
    Thanks for the ideas!!!

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      February 4, 2014 at 8:29 am

      Thanks for sharing these wonderful tips! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Jeanette Nyberg says

    February 4, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    Love it! The double droppers are the best part. It’s like magic when the paint spreads around…

    Reply
  5. MMK says

    February 5, 2014 at 4:10 pm

    Great idea! Just did this with my three kids (4.5, and 2 year old twins). It was a huge success. Love that is all safe materials cause twinkie #1 was sticking the dropper in his mouth lol!!:)

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      February 5, 2014 at 4:15 pm

      Yay! So glad they all enjoyed it! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Tara from The Magnolia Barn says

    February 6, 2014 at 10:52 am

    Love how simple, creative and beautiful this art project is. Pinned!

    Reply
  7. Sheryl @Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds says

    February 9, 2014 at 7:13 pm

    We love droppers and pipettes too, Chelsey! I love that ah-ha moment when they understand how to suction and then release the liquid. Thank you for sharing on my Facebook page!

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      February 9, 2014 at 9:19 pm

      Yes! I love when using the dropper just ‘clicked’ for him! He was so proud! 🙂 Thanks so much for the opportunity to share!

      Reply
  8. Rachelle says

    February 10, 2014 at 8:44 am

    Lovely! I just shared this on my Facebook page.

    Reply
  9. Becky says

    February 10, 2014 at 11:52 am

    Great idea! Thanks for another fun thing to do with my grandchildren.

    Reply
  10. Krissy of B-Inspired Mama says

    February 12, 2014 at 9:30 am

    Thanks for sharing this! I’ll be featuring it on B-Inspired Mama’s Kids Co-Op Link Party tomorrow.

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      February 12, 2014 at 9:37 am

      Thanks so much, Krissy!

      Reply
  11. Jodi says

    February 12, 2014 at 11:03 am

    What a fun technique. I just pinned it and featured you at Mom’s Library over at Meaningful Mama. Thanks so much for linking up this week! I hope you’ll join us again.

    Reply
  12. Tori says

    May 16, 2015 at 1:26 pm

    This is a great idea. Also you can use a white crayon to draw on the paper before wetting it, then watch the image appear as the colors are dropped on to the paper.

    Reply
  13. Sarah L. says

    July 22, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    We tried this at home, but the colors would all blend and turn ugly and brown when you dropped one color on top of another. Did you have to water down your liquid water colors at all? How do you “mix” the colors and stay somewhat separate too?

    Reply

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Welcome to Buggy and Buddy! I'm Chelsey, a former teacher and parent living on the central coast of California. I love sharing crafts, science, STEM and STEAM activities, free printables and more! Read More…

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