Paris in Springtime

We only have one month left for this session of CovArts, and for the month of May we are looking at European architecture. We started off with a fun, whimsical, and slightly surreal rendition of the Eiffel Tower, using oil pastels, watercolor and sharpies.

First we took a light pencil and drew in the outline of our Eiffel tower and the three balloons, then we took a white crayon or pastel and drew in some detail lines.

Then we painted the background with colorful watercolors, making sure to put some bright flower patches at the bottom, and used contrasting colors for the balloons and sky. The kids loved seeing the "magic" of the white crayon show through the paint!

Lastly we added some defining lines and details with sharpies and black colored pencils, adding in fun patterns to our balloons, details for the flowers, as well as the ropes for the baskets. This part was a little touch and go for the kids- some just outlined their balloons and called it a day, and others spent time adding stems for each flower they painted.

All in all, each painting turned out unique and amazing! The kids did such a great job with this painting, even with all of the detail work. Here are the final paintings: