Watercolor painting is a visual and creative discipline, which is closely related to the development of digital technology, which also affects the methods and means of basic art education in China. In this paper, we detect the trajectory of gesture movement after preprocessing the gesture data collected from students in watercolor painting using a Leap Motion sensor. We use Euclidean distance and nearest neighbor laws to identify and classify gesture movements in order to recognize students’ gesture movements in art education. Then, the virtual interactive system is designed with Unity 3D software, and finally, the art teaching method combining watercolor techniques and information technology is established. The results of teaching practice show that the level of students’ watercolor technique skills in all dimensions under innovative teaching is much higher than that of students under traditional teaching, and the significance values are all less than 0.05, which indicates that the use of VR technology has a very obvious impact on the teaching of watercolor painting. Meanwhile, the scores of students’ watercolor painting works were also improved with the assistance of VR technology. This study can provide a case reference for the subsequent research on the application of augmented reality technology and related teaching resources to art education and can enrich the construction of a new model of art learning activities in colleges and universities with technical support.