Easy Glue Resist Art on Canvas (with Watercolor Paint)
Are you looking for an amazing technique using watercolor paints? This glue and canvas craft is the perfect way for beginners to make DIY signage, artwork and more for your home. You can personalize or customize this glue art to your liking with just white glue and watercolor paints.
Disclosure: We only recommend products we would use ourselves and all opinions expressed are our own. This post may contain affiliate links when clicked, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read our full privacy policy.
Some people think watercolor paint is a difficult medium to work with. However, watercolor is one of our favorite mediums to use. We love all the different ways you can use watercolor techniques to make watercolor art.
Even younger children can be successful with this painting technique.
Can you use watercolor paint on canvas?
Yes, 100%. You will see the texture of the canvas or canvas board, but use that to your advantage. Creating looser drawings or artwork can really work well when painting with watercolor on canvas.
Why do we love this technique?
- Easy To Do: It honestly is so easy and quick and fun unique approach to watercolor painting. Yes, can you spend a long time creating layers upon layers of watercolor paint.
- Quick: You can create an art project like we did in around 20 minutes. (It might have even taken us 10 minutes honestly).
- Any subject matter will work: You can draw any imagery you would like or even make a simple word design.
The longest part of this project is making sure you have dried glue before adding watercolor paint. If you are looking for a more intricate drawing idea, we think a mandala design might be very cool!
Recommended Supplies
- Watercolor Paint Brush
- Water container
- Liquid Watercolor or pans
- Canvas or Canvas Board
- Elmer’s Glue All
- Small container of salt
Other Materials That Resist Watercolors
Creating art by resisting paint is such a fun technique for all ages. Here are a few other ideas you may want to try.
- Crayons: kids especially love the magic of a white crayon or oil pastel resist
- Oil Pastels: Like our kid’s easy flower painting project
- Watercolor Masking Fluid
- Tape: even the youngest of children can create fun tape art with watercolor paints.
- Stickers
- Hot Glue
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Draw Your Design
Use the glue bottle to draw out a design. Have fun with it. Sketchy lines can work well.
Step 2: Let The Glue Dry
You want to make sure that your glue is completely dry before using watercolor. The dry time may vary depending on your environment and how much glue you applied.
Step 3: Experiment With Watercolor Painting Techniques
Wet canvas completely to complete a wet-on-wet look.
Use magenta, purple and turquoise liquid watercolor (or colors or your choice) right on top of the glue lines. by wetting the canvas first, you will see the colors really blend together.
Step 4: Keep Painting
Work in layers to add more details and colors to areas.
Art Teacher Tip: Leaving some of the white of the canvas or paper showing can add a lot of interest to a watercolor painting.
Optional: Add Salt
Add a few pinches of salt in spaces that are really saturated with color.
Step 5: Let Dry
Let your canvas fully dry. You can choose to keep the salt as part of the texture or lightly brush it away.
Tips
- When drawing with glue you want to have the tip of the bottle almost touching (if not touching) your surface. This will allow you to have the right amount of glue without being too much.
- Don’t try to be perfect. You are drawing with glue so embrace the medium and go for it.
- If working with young children, give them watercolor paints that you know will mix together well.
- You can lightly sketch your drawing with a pencil first if needed. Just note that you may end up seeing some of those lines at the end.
Technique FAQs
School glue is washable and may not hold up well when adding colorful watercolors (especially if using a more wet-on-wet technique).
Liquid watercolors are more vibrant than pan colors. You do not have to use only liquid watercolor. We just chose to make this watercolor painting as vibrant as possible. You can easily your own set of watercolor pans and watercolor paintbrushes for this glue painting technique.
The salt will soak up the wet watercolor paint to create a wonderful texture on your watercolor painting. You can do this on regular watercolor paper or even canvas. Make sure to fully let your painting dry to see the full lively effect and fun color.
You can choose to keep it in the painting as an added texture or carefully brush it off.
Follow us on Pinterest or Flipboard for more free art and craft ideas!
More Easy Watercolor Painting Ideas
- Learn how to paint an easy fall tree with our easy watercolor tutorial.
- How To Paint A Watercolor Pumpkin
- Fun Winter Birch Tree Landscape Painting
Now go and make your own watercolor works of art using a combination of these innovative techniques.
Do you like this art project? Please give us 5 stars below 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 and have fun being creative with your family.
Glue Art On Canvas
Equipment
- Watercolor Paint Brush
- Water container
Supplies
- Liquid Watercolor or pans
- Canvas or Canvas Board
- Elmer’s Glue All
- Small container of salt
Instructions
- Use the glue bottle to draw out design. Have fun with it. Sketchy lines can work well.
- Let glue dry completely.
- Wet canvas completely to complete a wet on wet look.
- Use magenta, purple and turquoise liquid watercolor (or colors or your choices) right on top of the glue lines.
- Add salt in spaces that are really saturated with color.
- Let dry. You can either dust salt off or keep it the texture as part of your glue art.
Notes
- Have fun with a variety of subject matter when creating your glue art on canvas.
- You can use watercolor sheets or paper instead of canvas board.
