Hello! I am super excited to welcome artist and teacher, Alissa Crafter to share regularly with Multiples and More some new craft activities! Here is a really fun watercolor fish craft activity that her class has used a few times for mini-artists as young as 3 and as old as 15!

Kids seem to love using pipettes and making a mess , and the washy effect of blotted watercolour paints make this a great medium for this watery fish craft project.

fun watercolor fish craft

Supplies Needed

  • 80 gsm paper (photocopy paper)
  • Watercolor paints (the concentrated type in a tube)
  • Pipettes
  • Paint Palettes (we used ice cube trays for watercolors because they are deeper than standard palettes)
  • Water container for cleaning brushes and pipettes
  • Cloths for blotting (cotton works great)
  • Fish Template
  • PVA Glue
  • Paintbrushes

Step 1: Preparation

First of all we drew a standard fish template onto A3 paper and cut it out. This will determine the shape of your fish craft.

fish craft template

Then we cut out 6cm circles from the photocopy paper.

fun watercolor fish craft - step 1

We mixed up the water color concentrates with more water than we usually would use. We did that because the paint needs to be thick enough to still have deep color but thin enough to suck up through a pipette.

Step 2: Start creating your unique fish craft

fun watercolor fish craft - step 2

Now comes the fun part! Suck up the paint into a pipette and squirt it at your paper circles. Stop to blot the excess liquid off the circle after squirting two or three circles. Remind the kids that these circles will be the scales of their fish craft so their can choose the colors they want for that middle section.

You will be left with a watery looking smudge of color on each circle.

To engage with the kids you can try the following:

  1. Ask your mini-artists to take note of the colors they are using. What happens when they mix? This is a great opportunity to teach how blue and yellow make green, red and blue make purple, etc.
  2. Try varying the ratios of color. Lots of yellow vs a little blue, then lots of blue with a little yellow. How do the colors differ?
  3. Also ask them to take note of which colors mixed together make a muddy brown color (purple and yellow, or red and green, or blue and orange do this).
fun watercolor fish craft

We made way too many circles because we were having so much fun with all the squirting and blotting, but we were happy we did because it gave us a good selection of circles to choose our favorites. We also loved putting the circles in order of where they would fall on the spectrum (orange next to yellow next to green next to blue etc).

You need about 15-20 circles for each A3 fish. Once you feel like you have enough you’re ready to turn them into fish scales!

Step 3: Wrap it up

We painted the fish head and tail with some left over watercolor paints before we started sticking the scales on. For the eye we used pom poms, googly eyes, and stickers. You could also paint an eye on if that’s all you have at hand.

Next we coated the body of the fish craft in PVA glue. Start sticking the scales on from the tail end.

This is important to make the scales look like they overlap in the same direction. Once they are stuck on, let dry and hang. We’ve decided we’re going to make an aquarium featuring fish, jellyfish, seaweed. Stay tuned for jellyfish instructions!

Looking for more? Check out other fun crafting ideas.

Alissa Crafter is the creative behind Artlis Studios, a small studio on the Gold Coast that reaches out to mini-artists and encourages them to express themselves with paint, pencils and mess. The studios aim is to support and inspire mini-artists to reach their own unique brand of creative genius. Her art and craft projects are all tested on groups of children of all ages and she shares with us her most popular lessons. See more art project ideas and find out about Artlis Studios lessons at www.artlis.com.au