Art with Krystie: Chinese Koi Fish - Watercolor Paintings

Drawing Fish and
Fun with Water

This week we started our class by reading a wonderful book by Barney Saltzberg called "Beautiful Oops!". It showed us in a fun, artsy way, that a mistake can turn into an even more exciting piece of art than we first intended. Belive me, this is a good message to have in mind when watercolor painting, as often the watercolor will take on a life of its own!

I asked the children to quickly draw a fish for me. We had some good ones, but they all did the same thing - they drew a fish from the side.

Some quick fish drawings before our lesson.

This was the perfect chance to talk about perspective. We talked about Koi ponds and how you typically view the fish from above - why not draw them as if we are looking down on them?

We also discussed how fish swim - not with straight bodies in straight lines. The idea was to show motion. We observed Koi fish swimming in a very peaceful video.

We practiced drawing our Koi fish first by drawing curved lines or "paths" for our fish to follow. The body was made by drawing a teardrop shape centered anywhere on the line. Fins and tails were drawn - not as triangles, but as fluid, fluttering shapes. Koi have large, gaping mouths when open, some with fun catfish-like whiskers. Their eyes are on the sides. We didn't concern ourselves with smaller details - those will come later. Their second fish drawing was much better.

Graceful Koi fish sketches - see how they follow a path, and curve their bodies?

Now the fun really began. We talked about watercolor painting and some tricks to help us. The most exciting trick was sprinkling regular salt on top of wet watercolors and the reaction that occurs as you wait. We practiced on real watercolor paper with liquid watercolors before starting on our final Koi fish painting.

Students tried a little or a lot of water, mixing colors on the page, and sprinkling salt on the paint.

Our next step was to begin our real Koi fish painting. First we drew our fish and added some other elements such as lily pads or branches over the pond.

We begin drawing and painting.

The goal today was to finish the water background of our painting. Here is where some of the students ended up:

PM KR

JD JV

DB NoB

One of the elements that makes the final painting really have the feel of Chinese art, is the addition of a red, personalized Chinese "chop" or signature stamp. To create these, I found a fabulous website that translates most names into Chinese characters. Really - they have tons of names in there - even mine with the funky spelling. I only had to research further for 2 students' names - not too bad! If you would like to see your name in Chinese, simply visit www.csymbol.com and click on "chinese names" in the left column. You will then go to a page where you choose male or female names by the first letter. The kids loved seeing their names in Chinese!

Making a Chinese "chop" or signature stamp

To make our chops, I printed out a backwards copy of the Chinese symbols (This was a mini lesson on printmaking). The students then traced over these onto thin pieces of styrofoam - most chose to write top to bottom in the traditional style. We rolled red print making ink onto these, then they placed them ink side down wherever they thought looked best on their artwork. They rolled over them to be sure the ink transferred, then gently peeled the styrofoam off to reveal an ancient looking chop that reads correctly. The cool part is that it really does say their first name! Not everyone had time to do this in the first class, but by next time they all will.