Use watercolors and a black watercolor resist medium to create colorful winter tree art. Make this gorgeous winter tree painting today!
Painting winter tree silhouette art with watercolors and a black resist medium is a fun and easy winter tree art project idea for kids and adults! Invite children to paint a colorful winter silhouette with watercolors at home or in the classroom with this step by step winter art tutorial.
Working with resist mediums and watercolor paints is a process-oriented way for children to practice working with watercolors. At the same time, they will learn about color mixing and the science of resist mediums. You may also enjoy this list of winter art projects for kids.
How to Make A Winter Tree Silhouette with a Black Resist Medium
Creating winter tree silhouette art with watercolors and a black resist medium is a fun and easy art project idea for kids and adults. For the best results, we recommend creating this winter tree silhouette over two different days.
Use black glue (or black pastel) to draw your winter trees on the first day you work on the project and paint them next. This will give the black glue to dry and allow children to spend time creating two types of art—a winter tree silhouette on the first day and a color-filled watercolor painting on the second.
This gorgeous winter tree silhouette watercolor art project is great for kids from toddlers to teens. Scroll down to see the winter tree art supply list and the step by step instructions for this winter art painting idea, including directions to make black glue.
Related: Snowy Alpine Tree Watercolor Resist Art
Winter Tree Art Project Supplies
Several different types of art supplies will work to make colorful winter tree art. For example, use white glue and black acrylic paint to make black glue or use a black oil pastel or crayon to make a winter tree silhouette.
You will notice that the other materials also have several options available. Use the art supplies that you have on hand, or try something new. The recipe for black glue is listed within the step by step instructions in the next section.
- White glue and black acrylic paint, OR, black oil pastel, OR, black crayon
- Watercolor paper or cardstock (heavyweight works best)
- Stockmar watercolors OR watercolor paint pallet OR liquid watercolors
- 3/4 – 1 1/2 inch flat wash watercolor brush OR flat wash watercolor paintbrush set
- FREE Winter Tree Art Template (Optional)
Related: The Best Art Supplies for Kids
Related: Art & Science: Experiment with Watercolor Resist Mediums
Winter Tree Silhouette Art Project Step by Step Directions
First, decide which black resist medium to use to make this winter tree art project; black glue, black oil pastel, or black crayon. My daughter and I used black glue as the resist medium for the winter tree silhouettes pictured. You can see her beautiful work in the video below!
Step 1 – Make Black Glue (optional)
Skip this step if you will be using black oil pastel or crayon to draw winter tree silhouettes.
How to make Black Glue:
Making black glue is simple and does not need to be measured. All you need to do is mix white glue with black acrylic paint to make black glue. We make our black glue by adding both ingredients to an old small white glue bottle. Just shake it up to mix and squeeze it out to use.
Note: You do not need to make “black glue” look black. Because white glue dries clear, black glue will often appear grey until it is dry. A little black acrylic paint goes a long way, so you don’t need much. We never measure, and it always turns out fine.
We are constantly adding a mixture of white glue and black acrylic paint to our “black glue bottle” for all of the black glue art projects we have created.
Step 2 – Print or Draw a Winter Tree Silhouette
Download and print the winter tree clipart, or draw a winter tree with black glue, black oil pastel, or black crayon on watercolor paper or heavyweight cardstock. Feel free to use a drawing pencil to draw the winter tree art beforehand, and then trace it afterward with one of the three types of black resist medium if you prefer.
Please note that black glue needs to dry overnight, while black pastel or crayon can be painted over right away. Black glue will not resist watercolor paint unless it is dry.
As mentioned above, we like to split this winter tree painting idea into two parts. Spend the first-day drawing and tracing winter tree silhouettes and the next day, painting them with watercolors to give children plenty of time to experience each type of art method or process.
Step 3 – Paint Winter Tree Art with Watercolors
Invite children to use watercolors to paint the winter trees that they made with a black resist medium. Allow kids to use and paint with any color to encourage them to learn about and experience color.
Working with watercolors is a process-oriented way for children to learn about color mixing in art. For more information check out wet-on-wet watercolor painting.
Related: Heart Art Projects
Winter Tree Silhouette Painting Idea Video Tutorial
Play the video below to see my daughter at work on the winter tree painting pictured in this post!
Related: Watercolor Surprise Heart Art Painting Ideas
More Black Glue Watercolor Resist Art Projects for Kids
Head on over to have a look at all of the other watercolor black glue resist art projects we have created for even more black glue and watercolor paint fun!
- Black Glue Rose Watercolor Resist Art Project
- Starfish Black Glue Watercolor Art Project
- Under the Sea Black Glue Art Projects
- Fall Leaves Black Glue Watercolor Resist Art
Silhouette Winter Tree Painting Idea
We hope you enjoy painting winter trees with your children! Don’t forget to pop over to have a look at this amazing collection of winter art projects and painting ideas.
You may also like to have a look at this cute collection of Valentine’s Day art projects. Learn more about Rhythms of Play HERE!
What a great effect! I’ve not tried making black glue before. I’ll give it a try.
Yay! I’m so glad you’ve been inspired to try black glue resist art! It’s really easy to make, the problem I see more often than not is that people think they need to make the glue look black and end up using too much acrylic paint, and this can add black to your watercolor painting if you use a lot of water. A little black acrylic paint in a white glue bottle, well shaken, goes a long way! Enjoy!