Animals and Their Habitats: Watercolor Painting

Merideth Ferrell

This life science intersected art class will take students across land, air, and sea as they visualize and paint animals and the places they call home.

In this interdisciplinary art program students will be introduced to both the basics techniques of watercolor painting and the relationships between animals and the environments where they live. Discussing 3 different animals (sea turtle, parrot, fox) and their habitats allows students to learn what each of the animals need to live in their particular environment, what plants and trees grow there, and how to express them in each painting. Using quality watercolor paper and paints, students try different watercolor painting techniques to see how to show distinct differences in light and rich values of color and different textures in fur, grass, water, tree bark and others.

Final Product

Students will create and complete three different watercolor paintings in this residency: a sea turtle in the ocean, a parrot in the air above the rainforest, and a fox in the woods

Learning Outcomes

• Students will learn to paint animals by connecting each of the shapes of the head, neck, body, legs and tail.

• Students will learn how the use of water lightens the values of the colors in the wet-on-wet technique and how the use of less water increases the value of the colors in the dry brush technique.

• The students’ paintings will demonstrate their understanding of the 3 different habitats of the animals we study, what grows there, and what the animal needs to live.

Suggested Grades

Kindergarten-5th grade

Pricing Breakdown

• 4 visits at 45 minutes each
• Prep hours: 2 hours/classroom
• Materials: $2.50/student
• Travel from Eugene