What Is Wet-on-Wet Watercolor in Waldorf Education?

You've seen the soft paintings on a Waldorf classroom wall, where yellow melts into blue and there isn't a hard line anywhere. You'd like to paint that way with your child at home, at the kitchen table, and you're not sure where to start.

Wet-on-wet painting starts with water. When the paper is soaked first, paint touched to it spreads on its own, and your child watches the color move instead of drawing an outline. Once you've set up, the water spreads the paint and your child follows it.

What wet-on-wet painting looks like in a Waldorf kindergarten

In a Waldorf kindergarten the point of painting is the child's experience of color, not a picture to take home. At Cardiff Steiner School, the kindergarten teacher first shows each child how to care for the materials: how to set the paper on the board, dip the brush, wipe extra paint back into the jar, and rinse the brush between colors. After that the teacher doesn't direct the painting. The teacher paints alongside the children.

They often start with one or two colors and leave some white paper showing. Later they find new colors themselves. Sarah Baldwin, quoted on the school's page, gives a child's words at that moment: "Look! There's ORANGE in my jar!" At the end, the children and teachers look at the colors together.

That's the teaching for home too. You set up the water and the color, then your child watches the water carry the paint.

Your setup checklist for painting at home

The setup is most of the job. Have everything on the table before your child comes to paint.

1. Paper. Heavy watercolor paper, 140 lb. Thinner paper buckles when it's soaked. Lay it textured side up.
2. Soaking. A tub, tray or sink big enough to hold the sheet flat under clean water. Soak it for about 10 to 20 minutes. Short on time? Brush or spray both sides with water and let it sit for at least 5 minutes.
3. Board. A smooth, waterproof painting board, such as a plastic one, big enough to hold the whole sheet.
4. Paints. Liquid watercolor in red, yellow and blue. Nell Regan Kartychok of Rhythms of Play uses carmine red, lemon yellow and ultramarine blue. All three are in Stockmar's basic assortment of 6 jars. Stockmar sells each color in jars from 20 ml up to 250 ml.
5. Paint jars. One 8 oz jar per color for mixing and storing, and one small jar (2 to 6 oz) for the paint you're using now. Baby food jars work.
6. Water. A 16 oz jar of clean water for rinsing the brush.
7. Brush. A flat wash brush, 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide. With more than one color, give each color its own brush.
8. Sponges. Three: one to wipe water off the paper, one to pat the brush dry, and one to clean the board afterward. Keep the paper sponge free of paint so it doesn't stain the next sheet.
9. The rest. A rag to rest the brush on, an apron or old shirt, and a chopstick for stirring.

Mixing the paint

Stockmar paint comes as a strong concentrate, so you mix it with water before your child paints. The more water, the paler the color.

Mix while the paper soaks:

1. Put 1 tsp of paint into the 8 oz jar. You can go up to 1 Tbsp later.
2. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water and stir with the chopstick.
3. Test it on a scrap of paper. Too pale? Add more paint. Too dark? Add water.
4. Pour some into the small jar for today.

Cover the rest and keep it somewhere cool and dark, such as the fridge. Stir it before the next painting.

Your first painting, in 5 steps

With the paper soaked and the paint mixed, the painting itself is short. Start with one color.

STEP 1. Lift the paper out of the water and lay it flat on the board.

STEP 2. Wipe it with the clean paper sponge until it shines but has no puddles, and smooth out any air bubbles. Less water is better than too much.

STEP 3. If this is your child's first time, paint a few strokes yourself first: long strokes in one direction, and gentle taps of color. Then keep painting beside them, on your own sheet.

STEP 4. Your child loads the brush, wipes the extra paint back into the jar, touches the brush to the paper and watches the color spread. Brush lightly. Between colors, rinse the brush in the water jar and pat it dry on the brush sponge.

STEP 5. Stop while the paper is still wet. Leave the painting to dry flat on the board.

What to expect

The color will bloom outward on its own, often further than your child meant it to. That's the technique working.

If it spreads too far, rinse the brush, squeeze most of the water out and use it to lift the extra paint. To move color across the page, tilt the board or add a stroke of clean water.

Muddy colors usually mean the brush kept going back over the same place. Putting the brush down early keeps the colors clear.

Children as young as 3 can paint this way with you beside them, and Waldorf kindergartens paint with children aged 3 to 6. The youngest painters work with one color at a time. Older children start mixing.

After the painting

Wipe the board with the board sponge and rinse the brush. Store the leftover paint for next time.

Once the paintings are dry, some go home or onto the wall. Others become cards, lanterns or the background for your nature table.

Giving painting a place in your week

Our suggestion: give painting its own afternoon, the same one each week. The soaking, the mixing and the sponges become the way that afternoon begins. Nell Regan Kartychok, who writes Rhythms of Play, says her daughter asks to paint every day.

Many families give each weekday its own activity, and painting is one of them. The Waldorf homeschool daily rhythm guide shows how a painting afternoon fits into the week.