Art Project - The Curious Whale
The Curious Whale was created for my kids’ art classes soon after I worked on another whale project. It’s about a curious whale swimming up to the surface of the ocean to find out what is floating on the water. The sun behind the rowboat creates a silhouette that draws your eye in.
The Goal:
Perspective - We want our audience to understand we’re looking up towards the surface of the ocean.
Blending - We’re blending our colours from white to a light yellow and then to a dark blue, all around the whale, without losing the whale.
The Materials:
Watercolour paint, coloured pencils, and/or a white acrylic marker.
The Steps:
1. I always encourage a sketchbook practice before starting the final artwork, which can include practicing the lines and the blending of colours using watercolours.
3. Once you’re done practicing, start your final The Curious Whale artwork. You may work differently, but I encouraged my students to paint a light background first.
4. Now it’s time to paint the whale. The whale can be painted in 2 steps. A light blue painting of the entire whale. A second layer using a darker blue of just the darker areas - not the belly.
5. With black paint, add your silhouetted rowboat to the middle of your sun.
6. Let’s make the ocean background a little darker. If you look at my example, I didn’t paint directly to the edge of the whale but left a little glow around it so help the whale stand out. This looks was if the sunlight is reflecting off of the whale.
7. Once the watercolours have dried, add your details to the whale and bubble in the ocean.
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