Step by Step Lesson Plan: Mastering Watercolour Techniques with Sweets

How-To Guides

Introduction

These lessons are an introduction to using watercolour paints to start to show realism, aimed at Year 9 students or higher. It shows students the process for layering watercolour paints and engages them by using sweet / chocolate wrappers. Students use pencil to refine their work once the paint layers are dry. This set of lessons would also be suitable for an art club or intervention sessions with GCSE students. Students can taken their own wrapper photographs to use or you can have your own resources printed for them. Wrappers with lots of tonal variations work best. To make these lessons simpler, you could have students all painting the same wrapper and copying your demo steps one-by-one.

Duration:

3 - 4 hours

Aims:

• Understand how to graphite transfer a reference picture
• Understand how to add a base layer colour wash
• Understand how to show highlights using watercolours
• Understand how to add layers of watercolour paints
• Understand how to refine work using pencil

Materials:

• Sweet / chocolate wrapper reference pictures,
• PD479A625 Specialist Crafts Watercolour Tablets
• BR441A444 Artist Round Watercolour Brush Set
• DP291A010 Spectrum Graphite Pencils
• PB051A Specialist Crafts Spectrum Artist Watercolour Paper Pads

Introduce students to watercolour techniques for creating realistic effects, with a focus on layering and tonal variation. By using familiar, brightly coloured sweet and chocolate wrappers as subjects, the project is instantly engaging and relatable. The intricate details, shiny surfaces, and varied colours of the wrappers encourage close observation, helping students train their eyes to spot subtle changes in tone, hue, and highlight. This not only improves accuracy in their painting but also builds transferable skills for rendering realism in other subjects. The combination of watercolour layering and pencil refinement offers a clear, step-by-step route to developing technical control while keeping the activity creative and appealing.

Reference image

Step by step - Let's Create

1. Graphite transfer the reference picture OR have high ability students draw their wrapper out lightly.

2. Identify the base layer colours, mix them and then apply a light wash - making sure students use more water than paint. Let the layer dry.

3. Show students how to leave areas of the first layer where they want to show highlights.

4. Mix more paint into water to make the colour more intense, then add paint to make darker areas. Let the layer dry.

5. Repeat the process of adding paint and reducing the amount of water, then adding the darkest colours. You might need to repeat this step more than once but in my example only added 4 layers of paint.

6. The final step is using a very sharp, 4b (or higher) pencil to add fine details, black shadows and some areas of tone.

SWEET WRAPPERS MAKE LEARNING REALISTIC WATERCOLOUR PAINTING FUN AND ENGAGING.

Written by Greg Thomas, The Art Teacher

Greg Thomas is an artist and experienced art teacher from Greater Manchester who runs the free resource site The Art Teacher, offering lesson plans, project ideas and schemes of work for KS3 and KS4 art and design. His classroom-ready content supports teachers with practical, engaging art activities and creative inspiration.

For more information visit: www.theartteacher.net