I’ve always loved watercolor paintings. Something about the colors and how they look on the paper continues to attract me.

Photo from Black Cat Pages

During my college years I developed the firm idea that I was not artistically inclined, and I shouldn’t even waste my time trying to do art.

When I began to home educate my children, I started understanding the power of my example in their eyes. Little by little my mindset changed, and I moved out of my comfort zone to do activities with my children. Sometimes I even take a class before they do, so I can teach them or at least inspire them.

So when my friend put together a watercolor paint class for a group of my daughter’s friends, I jumped on board. This was the first picture I painted, with a little help from the teacher. I had to look at her examples a lot as I did mine.

Next we traced a simple picture with carbon paper.

Then you paint a grey wash, leaving some parts white. After that dries you paint a darker coat on certain parts of the picture.

When that dries, you add more details. Each layer only takes a few minutes to dry.

Here’s Raquel’s. She wasn’t very pleased with her work, but I thought she did a fine job.

Then we made color wheels, which helped us learn to mix the colors correctly.

Here’s my finished wheel.

Then we tried a few more exercises and ended with a couple harder projects. We drew a scene of fruit.

Then painted it. I didn’t quite finish this one. I probably should have done a cream background wash first.

Here is our teacher, Jennifer Lineweaver’s painting. I love it!

Then we drew candy and painted it. This is Raquel’s painting.

She got frustrated a few times and probably would have quite the class if I wasn’t doing it with her.

Here’s mine and it’s pretty much finished. It could probably use a bit more background color.

I’m a perfectionist when it comes to art projects so I’m inclined not to do them, but when I do finally try I usually enjoy myself. And I create something beautiful in the process.

I like being able to say, “I can do that.” It’s empowering.

I’m so grateful for the way that home educating my children has changed my own perspective on learning. It’s made my life much richer and educating my kids more fun.