Painting Still Life

Painting bottles is a great way to learn how to make glass appear translucent and still have depth. Your child will create a beautiful painting of blue glass bottles, learning an easy technique to conquer a complex subject. Using translucent qualities of watercolor paints to create a color wash, and opaque tempera to create depth, the bottles will have similar appearance as stained glass.

What You Need:

• White watercolor paper (11” x 17” or larger)
• Vine charcoal
• Various shades of blue watercolor paint
• Various shades of blue tempera paint
• Paintbrushes
• Paint palette
• Assorted glass bottles

What You Do:

1. Lay out a row of glass bottles next to each other at the top of the paper, so there is about one inch from the top of the paper to the top of the bottles.
2. Trace around the bottles using vine charcoal.
3. Move the bottles down to create another row of bottles that seem to “overlap” the first row. Change the order of the bottles so the sizes and shapes vary. Trace this row with charcoal.
4. Repeat this process again as long as you have room.
5. Lay out blue paint in the painting trays.
6. Starting with watercolor, add a tiny bit of blue watercolor paint into water so that it appears translucent. If you have a variety of blue watercolor paint to choose from, it will add interest and beauty to the final painting. Brush watercolor onto the drawn bottles, staying within the charcoal lines. Allow this to dry.
7. Now, choose a dark blue to outline each bottle.
8. If you would like to make more shadows in your bottles, you can choose a variety of blues of tempera paint and add further information into the bottles.
9. Allow to dry before hanging.