Just before winter break, my kids classes (ages 7-14) made gingerbread houses with candy using watercolor. Our focus here was on creating a pleasing composition using a variety of elements (candy!). Everything we painted had to be edible - doorknobs, door mats, windows, footpaths, trees....so.... candy and cookies! We created realistic dimension on our glossy, sticky candy using highlights and shadows, and our snow (icing sugar) looks fluffy because we also added shadows using a faint blue. Our gingerbread does not look perfectly flat, rather, we dabbed with our brush in different ways to create that slightly lumpy cookie texture. In our sky we used the wet-on-wet technique and added salt for texture. Lastly, our houses and candy cast faint grey shadows on the snow for strong overall dimension.
What a candy rush, and how festive!
Step 1: On an A3 watercolor or mixed-media paper, students drew a basic house with the front and one side visible. You could use 1 point perspective to do this 'correctly' but we just free-handed. I drew several examples on the board - basically, draw the front of the house (square) and triangle roof, then draw 3 parallel lines going back, then 2 lines that are parallel with the first roof and front panel lines, closing off the back side of the house.
Step 2: Students looked at many pictures of candy and gingerbread houses to inspire their own creations. Objective was to fill up the foreground and middle ground with sweets in a variety of shapes and sizes - this creates an exciting composition. Everything had to be 'edible' - students got creative with this - candy doorknobs, lollipop trees, peppermint candy walkway, cut-out cookie tree... Students drew in light pencil.
Step 3: Using watercolor, students began painting using watercolor technique: start with the lightest value (more water, less pigment). Gradually add layers of color to increase saturation or add more pigment where the object is darker - this will give a 3-D look. Browns were used to paint the cookie part. Students used a dabbing motion with our brush to mimic that uneven, lumpy cookie texture. On the candy students were encouraged to leave a tiny 'reflection spot' white for a bold reflection. Students used a very light grey (lots of water, almost no pigment) to add shadowing under all the features. A very light blue was used to create shadows on the white icing areas.
Step 4: For the sky, students used the wet-on-wet technique to quickly cover the sky space, and were encouraged to paint darker at the horizon line for greater contrast between sky and snow. They sprinkled salt on the wet sky for that starry night texture.
So fun with so much room for creative thinking and individual direction. The kids loved this project!
