India Ink and Tempera Resist Art Lesson

I think this is a fun project for kids to experience.  It can have a batik or stained glass look to it.  I am going to do the whale for my beach art camp and the coyote for my animal themed art camp.

You will need black and/or blue India Ink - it has to be waterproof ink.
White Tempera Paint
Colored Pencils
Watercolor Paper

First draw your design on watercolor paper - make it fairly simple with at least one large shape for the main focus.

Next using the white tempera paint cover the areas you will be coloring later.

The next step is to cover the entire paper with india ink.  VIP - paint the areas around the tempera first instead of just going over the entire page tempera and all.  If you paint the ink over the tempera first the brush can accidentally drop tempera into areas where you want the ink .  Once you have all the areas surrounding the tempera shapes done go over the entire page with the ink.  

Wait about 5 minutes for the ink to mostly dry - but not too long or it may not wash off.  Then rinse the entire page under running water until the ink washes away with the tempera, leaving the ink on the page where there wasn't any tempera.  Be gentle when washing the tempera away so the paper stays intact.

The next step is coloring the white areas after the paper is dry.  I am going to do this as a two day project, allowing the paper to dry before they use colored pencils to finish.