Kids Art: Lines and Colors Oil Pastel Resist

Oil pastel resist is one of my favorites and I've done quite a few with Ana so far - our favorite resist paintings shared here a while back: Oil Pastel Resist creatures, Winter magic painting.

Having watched me and Ana just gather some materials off the shelf at will and work on our own "art project" or "craft project", Oggie is very much used to exploring with the arts and crafts materials available at home.

I wait for window of opportunity and when I hear, "Mama I want to do a art project with you",  I take it as a sweet invitation for me to try something with Og during weekends, when we pretty much unwind at home and get the previous week's kinks out of our system.

Recently Oggie tried this simple oil pastel resist project. Starting from mixing the tempera paint colors from the 3 primary colors (plus white) that we have, to waiting till the work is completely dry so we can show it to Papa, Oggie kept up his enthusiasm and interest.

In all such art exploration projects, the end result is incidental and I don't aim for a particular finished product.

(I find it hard to waste paints, so I try to mix them in small canning jars and when we are done for this session I put the lid on and save it for the next use).

Items Used: Diluted tempera paints, white crayon (or white oil pastel), watercolor paper, large flat brush for water wash, dropper, ruler

1. On the white watercolor or other heavy weight paper, draw lines using white crayon and ruler; or simply let the child draw squiggles and dots and such; Oggie helped hold the ruler down while I drew the lines for this project
2. Wash an area of the prepared watercolor paper with plain water and before the water is all absorbed, let the child pick up the inky paint in the dropper and allow a few drops to fall and watch it spread
3. Have a washcloth or tissue paper handy to wick away excess paints if one too many drops happen to fall and flood the area :)
4. Continue to water wash small areas of the watercolor paper and add color drops to it till the page is filled with color
5. Notice how the crayon/oil pastel lines (or squiggles) resist the color so the white remains white; of course this would work with any other color crayon or oil pastel, I just happen to like the white-on-white magic
6. Allow the paper to dry completely (we leave it by the heating vent to speed up the process) and use the paper in other projects
7. Have a good supply of heavyweight paper as there is a sporting chance that you won't stop with making just one 

Some suggestions for using these beauties:

• Cut out little shapes and glue it on to card stock paper to make greeting cards and bookmarks; for that extra dimension we use the thick double-sided tape to glue the shapes on
  
  
  
  
• Cut out heart shape to use as Valentines
  
  
  
  
  
• Plan out colors to make a collage: Our WIP is an ocean scene with sea creatures

If this project here inspired you to try it, please do let me know all the variations you tried and how you used these beautiful patterns, and please do consider donating to AHA (American Heart Association) via Hands On: As We Grow. Thanks a bunch!