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Polaroid Landscapes

Hope Creek Studios
Jun 16
2 min read

Three watercolor paintings: a tower in green hills, cacti against a sunset, and curved buildings with clear sky, on a gray textured background.

Highschool Project - Polaroids

This one’s a small project with big visual impact. We take a quick look at Polaroid photography—its place in history, that signature white border, how it captured a moment instantly before smartphones were even a thing. There’s something nostalgic and charming about those tiny frames.

Then we shift into watercolor mode. I usually do this after our watercolor technique lesson (we’ve got both this and the techniques resource in our store if you're looking to replicate it). Students get a small piece of watercolor paper—Polaroid-size, so they're already working in a tight little rectangle—and they have to create a mini landscape painting.

Sometimes I let them just choose a place they love, but other times I give it a twist:🎨

Art 10 Watercolor Paint Techniques Skills Worksheet Activity Lesson Guide

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Choose a famous piece of architecture (Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Parthenon...) and place it in a landscape where it doesn’t belong. The Eiffel Tower in the desert. The Colosseum on a snowy mountaintop.That unexpected combo makes them think creatively about composition and storytelling.

They work small, so they’re pushed to practice detail in a tight space, and the built-in frame just naturally brings everything together. It’s simple, satisfying, and when you line them all up together, they make the most beautiful little collection.

Why it works:

The small scale helps students slow down and focus. There’s no room to get lost in big strokes or overwhelming detail, so they really learn to control their medium, especially after learning their watercolor techniques. Adding in the architectural element brings in a cross-curricular moment (hello, history and geography!), and using the Polaroid format gives it a modern-meets-retro vibe that’s always a hit. Plus—it’s just fun to make art that looks like a tiny snapshot of a different world.