Wet-on-Wet Homer Seascapes

I have been wanting to teach wet-on-wet painting techniques to my 5th and 6th graders all year, and I have a post-it note on my computer suggesting wet-on-wet seascapes as a future project. But, I never got around to it, and part of the reason is because when students reach a certain age, they have a fear of failure, and a fear of painting without sketching first. In kindergarten and 1st grade, if I hand a student a paint brush, and tell them to paint, they will do it! By 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, they're scared to try because it might not look right. So, as our last two weeks of school are winding down, I decided to give wet-on-wet seascapes a try with my 1st graders, using Winslow Homer as a visual reference. It was a great success! We'll add a sky and some birds or boats next week. Here's what we did today: