Salt Resist Painting

This is one of my favorite painting activities. Sprinkle salt over wet watercolors and watch interesting and beautiful textures and patterns appear. This is truly an activity for all ages - easy enough for preschoolers - but also plenty of potential for older artists too.

Salt Resist Painting

Project Info

Difficulty Easy
Duration 15-30 minutes
Age Any
Submitted by
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Materials

  • Paintbrush
  • Paper
  • Salt
  • Watercolor Paint

Instructions

    1. Using watercolors paint a pattern onto a piece of paper
    2. Whilst the watercolors are still wet, sprinkle salt over the paper
    3. Leave to dry and then carefully brush off the salt into a sink.

    Tips

    1. The watercolors need to still be wet when you sprinkle the salt to get an effect. You will find that you either need to make your watercolors very wet or add salt as you go!
    2. Different types of salt will produce a different effect on the paint - why not do an experiment and see what difference it makes - use sea salt granules, table salt and kosher salt. You can use rice too!
    3. How does it work? The paint is drawn to the salt as it dries. Crystal shapes are left on the paper where the salt has absorbed the paint.

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    Useful supplies

    - our picks from Amazon for this project:
    Crayola 24 Ct Washable Watercolors Easy to Clean Up, 24 Bright Washable Watercolor Paints, 1 Paintbrush, Ages 3+
    Crayola 24 Ct Washable Watercolors Easy to Clean Up
    Strathmore 300 Series Watercolor Paper Pad, Top Wire Bound, 9x12 inches, 12 Sheets (140lb/300g) - Artist Paper for Adults and Students - Watercolors, Mixed Media, Markers and Art Journaling
    Strathmore 300 Series Watercolor Paper Pad

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