16 Liquid Watercolor Art Experiences

Liquid watercolors have become one of my favorite art materials. They are not as convenient as regular palette watercolors, which we use more often just because they don’t require as much set-up or clean-up, but they are just so beautiful to paint with. The colors are very rich and vibrant, and you can cover large areas with just a few strokes.

You can use them to splatter, bleed, paint on wood, use with different types of brushes (like toothbrushes and Q-tips), or use with eye droppers. Nothing matches their color and versatility!

Favorite Liquid Watercolor Supplies

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~ Amazon // Sax and Sargent are both excellent brands. Sargent has gold , silver and pearl

~ Blick // I can get the neon pink here, also they have a nice antique gold, silver and pearl

~ Brushes // my favorite for use with liquid watercolors are these by First Impressions, size 8

~ Watercolor paper // I mostly use 9 x 12 size in the 90 lb weight by Canson

Favorite Liquid Watercolor Art Experiences

There are so many ways to use this material I think the list is probably exhaustive. But here are some of my faves (not in any particular order)!

1. PAINT ON WOOD ~ We paint on wood quite a bit, especially wooden beads, and liquid watercolor work the best because they cover the surface quickly. The kids were so intrigued by how fast the color soaked into these wooden blocks, and how the color became more vibrant as it dried.

2. SPLATTER PAINT ~ Splatter painting is a favorite, and works best with liquid watercolor.

3. CIRCLE BLEED PAINTING ~ This project was really cool because the kids could watch the colors bleed into each other. Since the liquid watercolor goes on so quickly, it’s the best for bleeding like this because you need to work fast so the color doesn’t dry up.

4. EGG CARTON PAINTING ~ Liquid watercolors worked really well with this project because the kids could paint the cartons and beads quickly and really saturate them with color.

5. Q-TIP PAINTING ~ I use a lot of egg cartons to hold paint. Q-tips are a great alternative to paint brushes because they are short and won’t fall out. You can put one in each color, which eliminates the need for water to clean brushes. Plus, kids just love painting with Q-tips as a new experience.

6. PAINT ON NEWSPAPER ~ When you want to cover a large surface area quickly, liquid watercolor is the way to do it. And here, it just looks so beautiful contrasted with the black and white print of the newspaper.

7. PAINTED COFFEE FILTERS ~ Painting with liquid watercolors on coffee filters is an amazing experience. The paint soaks in so quickly, and the vibrant color is unmatchable!

8. PAINT ON EGGS WITH TOOTHBRUSHES ~ Liquid watercolor in jars is very versatile. You can use many different types of painting brushes. Here the kids used toothbrushes to paint their eggs!

9. COLOR STUDY ~ Liquid watercolors are a great medium to mix and make your own colors. You wouldn’t be able to do this with regular, palette watercolors. Again, here you also have a really cool bleeding effect going on.

10. COMBINING LIQUID WATERCOLOR and CHALK ~ To get vibrant color on a brown paper bag, liquid watercolor is the best choice. Plus, since you can move quickly, using the chalk on the paper bag when it’s still wet is a very fun experience.

11. PIPETTES ON COTTON ROUNDS ~ We used pipettes or droppers in this art experience. Cotton rounds soak up liquid watercolors beautifully, and make perfect little planets in this mixed media solar system.

12. MIXED-MEDIA WOODEN SCULPTURES ~ Another example of using liquid watercolor on wood, his time we made giant mixed media towers! Reminder to save those yarn trimmings when making pom-poms.

13. PAINTED SHELL COLLAGES ~ Even seashells can be painted with liquid watercolors! And of course our fave thing to paint… wood. Make these gorgeous shell collages with a few simple materials.

14. LIQUID WATERCOLOR ON FABRIC ~ Liquid watercolor looks so vibrant on fabric and is the perfect paint to use when making a bright and colorful no-sew puppet theatre.

15. PAINT AND CUT COFFEE FILTERS ~ Again, coffee filters for the win! Here we cut off off the round bits to make them square, then folded and cut them like snowflakes to make this gorgeous garland!

16. WATERCOLOR ON GIANT COFFEE FILTERS ~ Liquid watercolor works so well on coffee filters, I love the transparency of the material and how the watercolor just instantly seeps through to the other side. Here is a way to set up a painting experience where kids are standing and painting and using their arms and whole bodies!

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If you live in a country where you can’t find liquid watercolors, there are four things you could try. One, you could try using food coloring. You could water it down a little, or use it straight. Two, you could soak magic markers in water. I have not tried this technique, but here is a good tutorial. Three, you could combine tube watercolors with water (I used to do this before I discovered liquid watercolor). And four, you could try this!

TIP: If you want your liquid watercolor paints to last longer, water them down a bit. I don’t usually water mine down because the whole point for me is the rich, bright colors. But sometimes I do if I know the paint will be used quickly, like when splatter painting or using droppers.

I hope you give liquid watercolors a try!

xo, Bar