Highhill Homeschool: Watercolor, Form Drawing and Embroidery Inspired Art

Inspired by place mats created on an embroidery sewing machine, Waldorf form drawing and watercolor painting techniques we created interesting graphic works of art.

When my mother purchased her embroidery sewing machine, to become familiar with all the different stitches available she created several place mats. Each one contained similar designs and was full of different stitches.

They were so artistic I wanted to create them too.... But since we lacked the expensive sewing machine, an alternative method was required.

We used water color paper, paints and markers to create ours.

First red, blue and yellow water color paints were prepared. Each paper was filled in using only two out of the three colors.

Next a black marker was used to create two flowing lines across the page. In retrospect, one flowing line would have been much better for the younger children.

Before proceeding several fancy lines were sketched onto a blank piece of paper. These lines were meant to mimic the fancy stitches of the embroidery sewing machine and provide both practice and ideas before sketching on the watercolor paper. They reminded me of the form drawing - patterned continuous lines - Waldorf teachers have their students do in the early elementary grades.