VA Friday – Talavera Style Suns

Get in to the mood for summer with this fun painting lesson.

A little background from Wikipedia:

“Talavera is a type of majolica earthenware, distinguished by its white base glaze. Authentic Talavera pottery only comes from the city of Puebla and the communities of Atlixco, Cholula and Tecali, Mexico as the clays needed and the history of this craft are both centered there.

All pieces are hand-thrown on a potter’s wheel and the glazes contain tin and lead, as they have since colonial times. There are only six permitted colors: blue, yellow, black, green, orange and mauve, and these colors must be made from natural pigments. ” Full article here.

Talavera Style Suns

for ages 5 and up.

Lesson Materials:

White paper (watercolor preferred) 11″x11″ or a close size, pencil, black sharpie, watercolor paints in blue, yellow, black, green, orange and red. Liquid watercolors are very nice, but solid cake oval pans work well too.

Lesson Directions:

1. Begin by drawing a small circle in the middle of the paper. This will define the size of the sun face.

2. Draw facial features inside the circle. (almond shaped eyes, lips, nose made by drawing parenthesis with small dots for nostrils.)

3. Draw a large wavy shape around the face close to the edge of the paper. Draw lines to section off areas.

4. Fill each section with patterns, flower motifs, swirls, and/or leaf shapes. After sketch is done, trace over all pencil lines with Sharpie marker.

5. Paint with watercolor paints making sure to limit the pallet to the “permitted” colors. If the children are young, or may not understand a limited pallet, simply pop the unwanted colors out of the watercolor pallet, or don’t make certain colors available.

*To get mauve, kids should use a little dab of red and a tiny dot of blue mixed with a lot of water to make it pastel. If that color is still too purple, add a bit of orange to make it more neutral.