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Easy Watercolor Heart Painting For Preschoolers

Kids will absolutely love this easy heart art watercolor art project! You can create a heart or any design of your choice with painter’s tape.

easy heart watercolor painting for kids in warm colors and cool colored painting saying "grammy".

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This project would be a great and easy watercolor project to complete for Valentine’s Day or gift for a loved one. However, it doesn’t just have to be heart Art. Any child will love making this easy watercolor painting idea for any occasion.

What age is this easy watercolor idea for?

Any aged child would love to complete this project. Some adult assistance may be needed when taping the designs.

2 preschoolers creating using watercolor paintings with painter's tape and watercolor paint.

For instance, my 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son created the beautiful heart art examples in this post. We plan on giving these to our Grammy on her birthday. I just had to help tape and cut the heart on their papers.

After we were done, my son said, “This was awesome!”

Recommended Art Supplies

Extra Tools

  • Exacto Knife
  • Scissors
  • Paint shirts for kids (I always recommend just using a large T-Shirt)
  • Water container (any old plastic container will do)
watercolor supplies with paint palettes, small containers of water and paintings on teal table.

Tips For Using Watercolor Paint With Preschoolers

Use Washable Watercolor Paint

For watercolor paints, my toddlers and I used the washable paint that I have linked above. However, for older kids, I love using this Prang Watercolor set. This set is a little more pricey, but I have seen 500 kids use them all year, and still works well.

Try Diluted Liquid Watercolor

If you really want some different and vibrant colors in your projects, you should check out ordering a set of liquid watercolor paints like these from Sax. You can dilute and mix these to achieve a variety of colors. This set of 8 is also great because it will last a very long time for all your projects.

How To Create An Easy Painting

Step 1: Decide On A Image

For instance, I am going to show you how you can create beautiful heart artwork pretty easily using painter’s tape.

In addition, the taping and cutting should be done by an adult or an older child. Obviously, I did not have my young children using an Exacto knife. More power to you if let them! However, any aged kid can cut things out of the painter’s tape and create their own images.

Step 2: Tape Out Larger Shape

On thicker paper or watercolor paper tape a larger area than you will need. For a heart artwork, I taped a large upside-down triangle first.

blue painter's tape on white paper with exacto knife resting on it.

Step 3: Sketch Out Heart (or another shape)

Draw an image you will want to cut out on painter’s tape and cut out using an Exacto knife. Be careful not to press too hard.

exacto knife resting on white drawing paper with black sharpie and blue painter's tape on paper.

Step 4: Get Ready To Paint

Now we are ready to start painting our heart art! My young children could not wait to start using watercolor paint.

painter's tape heart with paintbrush and watercolor paint palette on wood background.

Step 5: Add Plain Water First

Before the kids start using colors, have them paint some water on the paper. This will easily help the colors blend when they start making their watercolor art project.

preschool child's hand holding brush adding water to white paper with heart on it.

Step 6: Start Painting

I had to encourage my daughter to paint in the white space around the heart and not on the heart! She still painted on the heart anyway!

preschool kid's hand painting red, orange and yellow watercolor paint on project.

Step 7: Continue Painting

Keep working to cover the white space around the tape area. It does look cool if they leave some space white, but make sure near the tape is painted.

more orange, yellow, red watercolor paint on paper around blue taped heart.

Step 8: Add Salt To Wet Paint

If you want to get a cool effect, sprinkle regular table salt onto the wet watercolor paint. Let the kids see what magic will be created on their own heart art watercolor art project!

hand reaching for a pinch of salt on top of watercolor painting.

Step 9: Let Paintings Dry

You must be patient. Luckily my kids went to the library while their paintings were drying.

salt on watercolor painting with grammy taped in painter's tape.

Step 10: Carefully Pull Off Tape

blue painter's tape partially peeled up from heart watercolor painting.

Carefully remove the tape from your project and see the beautiful watercolor artwork that was created by these little hands.

Tips for avoiding a brown mess when the watercolor paints mix!

First, I had each kid pick either warm (red, orange, yellow) paint or cool (green, blue, purple) paint. Secondly, I even cut the plastic in the paint palette, so that they did not mix the colors.

cool watercolor paint colors on white drawing paper with part of heart taped in blue painter's tape.

If you separate the colors into warm and cool, they will end up with interesting color mixtures.

Colors that are next to each other in the color wheel will mix better than if kids just mix all the colors. But hey, they are kids so let them experiment, too!

You can always make more of these heart art projects because they are such easy watercolor art projects to make.

I love this project so much that I have even framed one of these heart arts that my three-year-old did as his first painting when he was around 1! It is currently in our art gallery and it fits right in with the rest of the artworks from artists of all ages.

gallery wall with different framed artworks.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how kids of all ages can feel successful and create their own beautiful watercolor paintings and heart art projects.

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Not only will you create wonderful & easy watercolor paintings, but you will be creating memories that last forever!

If you like this easy tutorial, be sure to give us 5 stars below 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 and have fun being creative with your family.

Easy Watercolor Heart Painting

Preschoolers will love creating this fun watercolor painting idea using painter's tape.
Prep Time5 minutes
Active Time10 minutes
Dry Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Keyword: easy watercolor painting, Preschool heart painting idea, Watercolor heart painting
Author: Erin
Cost: under $5

Equipment

  • Scissors
  • Water container
  • Paint Brush
  • Exacto Knife Optional

Materials

  • Watercolor Paint
  • Painter’s Tape
  • Heavy Drawing or Watercolor Paper

Instructions

  • Tape out an image such as a heart or design using painter's tape.
    cool watercolor paint colors on white drawing paper with part of heart taped in blue painter's tape.
  • Paint water on the paper around the image.
    preschool child's hand holding brush adding water to white paper with heart on it.
  • Use warm or cool color watercolor paint all over the paper.
    2 preschoolers creating using watercolor paintings with painter's tape and watercolor paint.
  • Sprinkle salt in wet paint for a fun effect.
    hand reaching for a pinch of salt on top of watercolor painting.
  • Let painting completely dry.
    more orange, yellow, red watercolor paint on paper around blue taped heart.
  • Carefully peel off tape.
    blue painter's tape partially peeled up from heart watercolor painting.
  • Love your awesome watercolor painting.
    easy heart watercolor painting for kids in warm colors and cool colored painting saying "grammy".

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One Comment

  1. Wonderful idea Erin, thank you for sharing your detailed and well explained tutorial. I love that tip about using the exacto knife to carve out the pattern around the masking tape after it’s on the paper. I always thought you had to pre-cut it. Will be using that tip on future projects 🙂

    Cheers,
    Jasmine