Art for Beginners and Kids: Drawing and Painting Mexican Folk Art

1. Introduction and Supplies You Will Need: Hi friends, how are you? I hope you're having a great day today. I'd like to introduce you to this project. This is a drawing and watercolor painting project. And it is a Mexican folk art project that will help us to celebrate Dia De Los mark this. This is a project that I designed, especially for kids and beginners. You do not have to have any drawing or painting experience at all to be successful with this project. I will take you step-by-step through all the steps that you need to take so you feel comfortable at all times. Let's go for the supplies and materials you will need for this project. The first thing that you'll need is a piece of watercolor paper. You will need some watercolor paint. You will need a paintbrush. You will need a bowl or a cough with clean water, you will need a black oil pastel or a black crayon and a paper towel. So go ahead and gather all of those supplies and materials. And I'll see you back here in the next video. 2. Examples of Mexican Folk Art Designs: I have drawn out some examples of some Mexican folk art designs that I am going to put into a video after the first step. So you can pause that video and it will have this image right here. I have some drawings that are examples that you might want to use. So if you want to use those examples, just pause the video after the first step. And you will see this. 3. Step 1: Draw the Design: In this step we are going to draw our design. So let's get started. So what we're going to do is we're going to pick up our oil pastel. And we are going to create a design that fills up this whole, entire piece of paper. So your items that we put on the piece of paper might be in a different spot than mine. Your drawings might be in a different spot than mine. We're just going to go with the flow. And wherever you have a space, that's where you're going to put a particular item. Okay? So what we're going to do first is we are going to create a sugar skull. And I'm going to put in my sugar school about right here. And it's not going to be huge, but it's not going to be tiny. All right, let me show you how to make a sugar school. Let's make a curved line like this. It's like an upside down letters C. And then we're going to bring two lines coming down. And then we're going to close those up. My sugar skull is kind of going off at an angle, but if yours comes straight down, That's okay. Let me make a mouth. That's just a line with some more lines coming perpendicular to the first line. And I'm going to make some really big eye sockets right here. If they're not exactly the same size, That's okay. Inside of those eye sockets, I think I'm going to put a design, maybe some flowers. So that's a circle with some petals around. You're going to be pretty big for that space. Then I'm going to make a triangular nose. Maybe some hearts for my cheeks. And then maybe a little flower design up here at the top. So there's my sugar skull. Now, let's see some other things that we could put on this piece of paper. How about a small bird? Said anything about birds is that they can be any shape that you like. I'm going to make my bird this shape. And then he's going to have two eyes right here. And then a beak. And then maybe some wings coming out like this. There's a different type of a bird that you'd like to make. Go ahead and make that maybe a tail that comes out this way. Maybe I'll put even a little crown on the top of his head. What a cute little bird. Okay. I have some more space down here. And I think that I'm going to create a guitar. So I'm going to make a shape that looks like this. It's like a rounded rectangle that the corners or the angles around it. Then I'm going to make a long two lines, close them up at the bottom. And then I'm going to make a curved line coming around like this. So let me explain to you what I did here. I come down around, make it kinda big here at the bottom, and then do the same thing on the other side. And then I'll have to put the hole here for my guitar. And then I'm going to put some strings. Now, it's going to be a little bit challenging for me to put strings here because my space is so small, but I'm just going to do the best that I can hear. Straight lines with little lines at the end. So there's my guitar. I think I'll put a little chili pepper down here at the bottom. So the way that I make a chili pepper is actually maybe I'll put my chili pepper up here. I think it will look better up here. So I make the top part of my chili pepper like this. And then I come down with a curved line and then come down with another curved line in one and make sure that I remember the stem. It's very simple drawing. Let's see, I want to put something down here at the bottom, maybe a candle. Me put a candle down here. So I'm going to make a rectangle. And then I want it be flame coming out the top. So that's just a curved line that comes to a point at the top. And then a little wax seeping down. And then maybe I will put some flowers down here at the bottom. Put some leaves here first. So those are just curved lines. And then maybe some flowers. Now remember, when you're creating your artwork, it doesn't need to look like mine. It can just look like yours. I think I'm finished with the main items that I'm going to put on my artwork. But now I want to fill up my other spaces with more things. Maybe like with flowers are hearts or leaves or different types of nature, things from nature. So I think I'm going to make a large flower here. And then maybe I'll put some smaller flowers and hearts. So I'm just going to take a moment to do that. Already. Friends, I think I'm finished with my design. I'm really happy with it in the way that it looks. And I think I filled up pretty much all of my spaces with some Mexican folk art designs. So I'm really happy with it. In the next step, what we're going to do is we're going to start painting. We are going to apply some watercolor paint to our design. So I will see you back here in the next video. 4. Step 2: Paint the Background: In this step, we are going to be applying some paint to our background. We are not going to be applying paint to our designs that we have drawn. We're just going to paint the background at this point. So think about a color that you would like to put in your background. You can choose any color that you'd like. I think I'm going to choose the color orange. So I think that that will bring this big pop of color to this artwork. And that's the color that I'm going to choose. What we're going to do first is we are going to place a drop or two of water into each pan of paint. And what that will do is it will soften up the paint a little bit. It will dissolve the paint. So it is much easier for us to use. There we go. Now that the paint is softening up, I am going to start painting my background first. And then in the next step, that's when we will start painting our designs. So let me get started with that. I think I'm going to use this color, orange. I have a few different choices of orange. But I think for this particular project, I'm going to use this bright orange. All right, what I'm going to do is I am going to speed up this video. And you can watch me. Looks like I'm painting really fast. I'm going to be taking my time because I really want to do a good job on this. All righty friends. I've finished painting the background, and in the next step, we are going to apply some watercolor paints to our drawings. So I'll see you back here in the next video. 5. Step 3: Paint the Folk Art Designs: In this step, we are going to apply watercolor paints to our drawings. And you can pay your drawings any colors that you like. Just like I'm going to do. I am going to leave this sugar skull part right here white. And I think that's it. I might leave a couple of spaces white. But for the most part I'm going to try to fill in most of my drawings with color, with Mexican folk art. They like to use a lot of really strong, vibrant, beautiful colors. So that's what I'm going to try to do. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to start painting. I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to overthink things. I'm just going to start painting. And I would suggest that you do the same. You don't need to think about it too much. Just go whatever, whatever your heart is telling you to do. So I'm going to speed up this video and you can watch me and then you can get started on your own. So I'll see you back here in just a minute. All right, friends. I'm finished. And I really like how bright and colorful and happy this artwork is. I hope that you enjoyed learning this lesson. I really enjoyed teaching you and I hope you have a great day today. I will see you next time.