Art Lab: STEAM Painting

Paint a birch tree with the yarn resist painting technique

Learn about the science behind resist art and create a beautiful birch tree scene, as well as the impressionism painting technique.

Learn all about an interesting painting technique with this STEAM activity, which includes using a physical barrier of yarn to leave white space in our paintings of birch bark trees.

This is a variation of using a white crayon to prevent watercolor paint from covering part of your paper. 

The Lancaster Science Factory has a great explanation for the why of wax watercolor resist art:

Would you think that the white crayon would be covered by the paint? Instead, the crayon resists the paint and shows through like a secret message! The reason is polarity. Water is a polar substance, which means the molecule as an attractive force. Wax (which is what the crayon is made of) is a non-polar substance, which means it’s molecules don’t have an attractive force. They’re spread out evenly throughout the substance.

Did you know that you can find out more about Impressionism art and other topics by using our online databases? Read this article in Britannica School Elementary about Impressionism art.

Want more STEAM activities? Find a book in our catalog!

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