My wife’s students were going to see a performance of The Nutcracker this week so she asked me to help her out with an activity for when they return. I prepared a set of nutcracker inspired faces for her students to color. They are full page designs but also set up to print in other sizes. There are 31 different faces altogether so the students can choose the one they want and they will make an interesting display when hung together on a wall. The graphics can be colored with marker, colored pencil and crayon. They would also be useful for other mediums. I have no doubt that I will, at some point, use them for scratch-art images. Watercolor and watercolor pencil actually work well on photocopies…particularly with heavy outlined graphics that divide up the paper quite a lot like these. The toner actually works as a bit of a resist to help the paper hold up to the wet media. When applying water medium to copy paper, I use water sparingly of course. I also find it’s best to paint one area, leave the adjacent area blank and paint the next one. Continue leaving a blank space between painted spaces over the whole paper surface. When the paint is thoroughly dry,one can go back and apply paint to the intermediate areas. This helps keep the paper from warping and curling excessively which causes water media to pool. It also prevents colors from bleeding into one another. Sometimes I will have each student begin two designs. This way, one can be drying while the other is being painted.