1. Watercolor paper. color a big swirl on one half of paper, using one color of OIL PASTEL. other side of paper, use another color & make another swirl in OIL PASTEL. i picked orange & purple.
2. paint– with WATERCOLOR paint, the colors that are closest to the OIL PASTEL color…i painted my purple swirl with blue & purple. the orange side, i used orange & yellow…saturate the paper in color. let dry.
3. cut dry WATERCOLOR PAPER into strips, when dry. then CUT the strips in half, making waves (ha, a pun)
4. draw a fish onto MATT BOARD (found for $10 bucks at Hobby Lobby) cut the fish out. draw his eye & fins on a different part of the MATT BOARD & cut those out.
5. start at the tail of the fish, place the curved part of the watercolor paper strips, the curved part, glue with gloss MOD PODGE, carefully b/c the watercolor paint can run. add on another strip, covering the flat side of the paper with a curved part…overlap each piece. let edges hang off fish. continue to layer strips of ‘scales’ onto the fish. rinse & wipe brush after switching to a new color.
6. for the fins that have been cut out, repeat…starting from the end of the fin. let dry.
7. the fish eye…i used nail polish. a thick drop of color with a dot of black for pupil.
8. when the fish & fins are dry, turn the fish upside down so that you can see the MATT BOARD fish again & trim off the paper that hangs off the edges. repeat with fin.
9. glue the fins onto the fish, the one on the back? I used tape so it looked as though it came from behind the fish. glue on the dry nail polish eye…add a drop of white paint (i dipped the end of the brush into paint & dabbed the white onto the eye)
10. i taped ribbon onto the back of the fish, to hang in my art studio. you can glue the fish onto a canvas that you’ve painted in anyway you’d like…i recommend painting water for the background.
i made this project with two young girls, the project took two hours b/c of drying time. it may not look like much, but it was wonderful fun.
You inspired me!
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You inspire me too. ~amy
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Looks lovely, will copy that for my grandchildren as we are always doing some art together. A lovely idea – thank you. Going to your website.
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