Hidden in the Paint
The paint comes first. You look at each blob until something looks back, then you draw the lines.
Hand-painted watercolor pages for kids, adults and classrooms. Made in Finland by Padul Studios.
What did you find?
the bookEvery blob is hiding something
Hidden in the Paint has 32 drawing pages. Every blob was painted by hand on textured watercolor paper and scanned at full detail, so you can see the grain of the paper and the way the pigment settled.
There are no outlines, no numbers and no instructions. The paint suggests a shape and you decide what it is. One reader sees a whale, the next sees a boot, and both are right.
- Format
- Paperback, 21.6 × 21.6 cm (8.5 × 8.5 in)
- Pages
- 32 hand-painted pages to draw on, printed on one side so pens never bleed through onto the next picture
- For
- Kids and adults
- Language
- The drawing pages have no words. A short introduction and closing page are in English.
- ISBN
- 978-9528816744
how it worksLook, find, draw
Look
Turn the book around. Squint a little. Give the blob a moment.
Find
A nose here, a tail there. Slowly the shape starts to look like something.
Draw
Add the eyes, the legs, the hat, whatever it needs. Any pen works.
for schoolsIn the classroom
Hidden in the Paint is used in a Helsinki school, and teachers use it in art lessons, as a calm start to the school day, and as a prompt for speaking and writing. Every pupil gets the same page and nobody finds the same thing.
Creativity
There is no right answer to find. Pupils learn to trust their own ideas, and quieter pupils get a task where they can't fail.
Attention span
Looking closely at one shape for several minutes is practice in staying with a task. Many teachers use a page to settle the class after a break.
Visual thinking
Like spotting shapes in clouds, the book trains observation, imagination and seeing the same thing from different angles.
Fine motor skills
Drawing controlled lines along the edge of a shape and inside it builds pen control for younger pupils.
Language
Name it, describe it, write its story. The drawing pages have no text, which makes the book useful in English lessons and for pupils learning Finnish.
Calm and wellbeing
A screen-free activity with no pressure and no grading, good for a quiet moment in a busy day.
The activities support the transversal competences in the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education, especially Thinking and learning to learn (T1) and Cultural competence, interaction and self-expression (T2).
school ordersOrdering for a school
We sell class sets directly to schools in Finland. Tell us how many copies you need and where they should go, and we'll send you a quote.
- Class sets of any size
- Volume pricing
- Invoice to the school
- Delivered straight to the school
write to us
hello@padulstudios.com
about usPadul Studios
Padul Studios is a small studio in Finland making books you finish yourself.
Every blob in Hidden in the Paint was painted by hand with real watercolor. The shapes come from water, pigment and paper, which is why no two of them look alike.
Questions, ideas or a picture of something you found? We'd love to hear from you at hello@padulstudios.com.
— Padul Studios
