Salt Watercolor Art inspired by “Triangle”

“Triangle” by Marc Barnett and Jon Klassen

Sneaky triangles and tricks, oh my!  This new book (first in an upcoming trio) is an absolute delight full of clever tricks and subtle sarcasm.  It is about a triangle, who lives in the land of triangles and how he one day travels over to his friend square, who lives in the land of squares to play a trick.  Once he has played his harmless trick an angry square follows him all the way back home only to get stuck in triangles triangle door.  This results in him blocking the light from Triangle, who is afraid of the dark.  He proclaims that this is what he meant to do all along, return a trick for a trick. But is it really?

The illustrations in this book are minimalistic, yet they are packed with tons of attitude that speak louder than words.  The text is simple, but brilliant as it fills in all the gaps that the illustrations don’t handle as well on their own.  I love it.  Basically, it is amazing what Jon Klassen does with eyes and wonderful how Marc Barnett can pare text down to the most impactful essentials.

Click here to purchase “Triangle” *affiliate link

Salt Watercolor Painting Scene inspired by “Triangle”

The coloring of the shapes in this book reminded me of salt painting and the simple geometry of the illustrations made me think that this one would be perfect for a “Beyond the Book” craft.  So, we created one!  This project is fairly simple, yet I think the results are stunning and pay a great tribute to this fun, yet beautiful book.

Supplies:

• watercolors (we just used brown, black, green and purple to make the colors murky like the book)
• Scissors
• cardstock or watercolor paper
• black sharpie or other marker
• glue stick
• table salt

Process:

1. Paint the watercolors all over your sheet of paper.  You want to use a lot of dark color mixing to create the mystically murky effect inspired by the book.  Also, use a lot of water so the salt technique works.
2. Once your paper is covered sprinkle table salt all over your paper and let it dry.  Once it is dry, softly brush the remaining salt granules off the paper with your hand.  You should be left with a lovely splattered effect.
3. Cut some triangles of various sizes out of your paper and glue them onto a new sheet of card stock to create a “triangle setting”.
4. Using a black sharpie, draw your little triangle man with shifty eyes as well as some sprouts and pebbles.

We really had a lot of fun with this one and I am really in love with the results.  I like how simple the salt technique is for even the youngest of artists, yet I love the creative openness of the rest of the project as well.  Pull out your brushes and enjoy!

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.