paint cut paste

each post on this blog highlights a different art material and/or activity. hopefully this helps to bring ideas to parents, teachers, caregivers, and friends of little artists. i have gotten several requests to do a summary post about my favorite basic art materials to supply for budding artists.  so this post is just that – a list of our favorite basic art materials for kids between 2 and 5 years old*. there are links throughout to illustrate the ideas and some links to where to buy the materials i discuss.

in my graduate studies in art therapy, i had an amazing mentor who really taught us the importance of creating an appealing space for making art and offering quality materials. he likened art materials to food (hey, much like your toddlers might, but not in quite the same way.) art materials are food for the soul. the ingredients of a “meal” (art piece) you or your child might make in order to express themselves. if you’re someone who buys good, healthy food for your body, and sets a beautiful, appealing table for serving a meal, you’ll understand how important it is to purchase nice art materials and present them in an appetizing fashion to your child (and yourself!) this doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot of money – just think about the aesthetics of presentation and investing in materials that minimize frustration/hinder creativity  for your child. (i.e.; buying paper that is too thin for paint will cause it to tear often.) along these lines, cleaning, storing, and caring for art materials is such an important lesson to teach your child. let them be a part of clean-up. let them “shampoo” their brushes and make sure not to give their brushes “bad hair days” while painting by pushing too hard on the bristles that they splay out flat. simple lessons like this will save you money on new materials in the long run. trust me.

where to make art:

around our house, art happens pretty much everywhere! the areas that seem to be most popular are:

• the easel, which we keep outside because it can get messy and because in the bay area we have year-round moderate temps. (don’t hate us for just missing the recent east coast snoverkill.) we were lucky enough to score a melissa & doug easelfor free from my favorite art supplier: freecycle.org – check this out and sign up for your area! you’ll be amazed at the kid stuff, housewares, art materials, etc that you can get for NOTHING. and it’s a great way to cleanse your home of things you don’t need that someone else might. enough of the plug. ikea makes a nice easel for cheaper than the m&d one, too.
• the kid-sized table. i set this up in our kitchen, the place where i usually am — cleaning, cooking, and also where my computer desk is. novi often says, “okay, you do your work, i’ll do mine!” and she sits down at her table and colors for hours while i do my housewifey duties (or… er… waste time on facebook, you know.) i always keep a selection of art materials she can use without supervision at her table, along with blank paper (white drawing pad as well as colorful smaller card stocks) and coloring books. my biggest tip if you’re going to set up an art table is to (let go of how it looks with the decor and) set it up in the area where you spend most of your time, because that’s where your kid is going to want to chill.

• when we’re doing larger projects and we’re not able to be outside for them, i cover our dining room table with a vinyl tablecloth (if we’re gonna make a big mess!) or i bring out an art board to put on the table.

where we store our materials:

mostly i store all of our art materials in this great cupboard i got at a thrift store and keep in our guest room/play room. i keep a lot of things (pencils, tubes of paint, natural materials, etc) in big clear jars because i like to see what’s inside to inspire me. it may not be the most logical choice, but it works for the way my creativity works.

i keep paper, canvas, and flat things on a shelf in the guest room closet. some are in boxes, some in folders, some sorted in magazine organizer dividers. none of this is exactly as i wish it was. i’d love to spend an entire day reorganizing all of the art stuff… but until that time comes, this works out just fine.

paper:

• for drawing (but not painting) i like the cheap drawing tablets of 9×12 white paper that you can get anywhere. typing paper is alright, too.
• for watercolors, i always get novi pads of watercolor paper. makes the process and the product so much more wonderful.
• for other paints, watercolor paper works fine (but it’s pricier) and card stock-weight papers are nice, too. also the rolls of paper that come with the easel companion sets are awesome.
• sometimes when i’m in an art store and they have a sale going on canvases, i buy a few then to keep around for myself and for novi. i also have bought pads of canvas paper, but we honestly don’t use it too much.
• fingerpaint paper – if you’re going to be fingerpainting, it’s nice to get a pad of this glossy stuff.
• coloring books – i wasn’t really a fan of getting these for novi because they aren’t very encouraging of free expression — the pre-drawn lines and shapes and all — until i got her some and saw that she is a meticulous colorer and will stay at it for sometimes over 2 hours straight on her own. *insert operatic music here so i can twirl around on a hillside in my apron about this*
• i always keep interesting scraps of colorful and printed papers around, as well. i store them in these wooden wine boxes that my husband kept his legos in when he was a child. one box has colorful paper, printed origami paper, and parts of greeting cards and other things that i have cut out because of the patterns. the other box has collage-worthy cuttings from an assortment of magazines. (papers can be stored nicely in drawers or file folders, too.)

graphic art materials (aka: stuff to draw with)

• we love the crayola twistables crayons because they last forever without the need for sharpening, and are thin enough to be able to color in details in a picture, but not too thin for little hands.
• colored pencils – any will do. i found these really fun thicker ones at ikea that novi is enjoying.

• crayola washable markers – both the broad point and the fine point are favored here. they wash off of little hands (and most surfaces) very easily with soap and water.
• creamy crayons – i wrote a blog recently on how amazingly smooth and yummy these crayons are! they are watersoluable, which means they can be painted over with a wet paintbrush to blend the colors. (also means they clean up easily!)
• oil pastels – similar in texture to the creamy crayons above, but they are *not* watersoluable. novi enjoys them, but because of being oil-based, may not be considered as clean or kid-safe.
• chalks – sidewalk chalk is a fav, and novi also likes to draw on the chalkboard that is on her easel with colorful chalk. chalk pastels are a grown-up version that are great for drawing and blending, but i don’t often offer them to young children, but it can be done. be prepared for a lot of dust and mess though. (not my favorite medium, personally. i have tactile issues with the dryness of chalk, but that’s just my own neurosis.)

paint (aka: getting messier)

• watercolors – for kids, i’m a big fan of any of the watercolors that come hardened into those little pots. crayola, rose art, off-brands, any of them really. (for reeeally vibrant colors, i let her use my tubed watercolors in a palette sometimes, but that’s not necessary.)
• fast-drying paints – both acrylic paint to tempera paint (sometimes labeled as poster paint) are water-based and dry quickly. we use both around here. remember that you don’t have to purchase every color of the rainbow. it’s great to get red, violet, yellow, indigo, cyan, white, and black. other colors can be made from these as a great art lesson in color mixing.
• fingerpaint – i love fingerpaint more than novi does. i love its translucence. crayola squeeze tube pack with the purple, turquoise, orange, and lime green is my favorite for the color combos it produces!

modeling, sculpting, and 3D materials (aka: the goop)

• i totally enjoy when we make our own play doughs from one of the zillions of recipes in the mary ann kohl mudworks book. that way i know what’s in it, and it’s usually made from things that are already in my kitchen.
• play-doh – good old fashioned, gooey, unnaturally colored, olifactoric-memory-evoking play-doh. i mean, it’s kinda gross but it can’t be replicated or replaced.
• crayola model magic – i adore this stuff. it’s not messy, it air-dries in one day and can be painted or colored on with markers. (unlike scuply, which is kinda toxic to little lungs during the baking process. eek.)
• for sculpting and building and painting and drawing – honestly, my recycling bin is a go-to place for many of my ideas… it’s eco-friendly to upcycle what was once seen as trash into lovely art and it’s the cheapest way i can think of to get crafty! (well, other than freecycle…)

• i keep clear jars of buttons, pom-poms, feathers, beads, marbles, natural materials like pinecones, sticks, shells, etc. around. i add to these jar collections all the time, and pull from them for crafty stuff.
• i also have a stash of felt and scrap fabrics and suuuuch minimal sewing materials. novi doesn’t sew or knit at this age, so these projects are outside the realm of this kid-art blog, but she does make art with the felt and fabric at times.

tools

• paintbrushes – i like to buy the cheap assortment sets of brushes for novi in craft stores. we have the set with the colorful handles and large round heads, and we have sets of wooden thin brushes with both flat and rounded heads. like with all art materials, it’s important to teach your kids how to care for their brushes. we wash ours off after painting with a bar of ivory soap (rub it on the white, so you can see when the color is out of the brush) and rinse well. dry them flat, not standing up in a jar or cup. if standing, the water runs down from the bristles into the handle of the brush, the metal can rust and the wood handle (if wood) can warp.
• scissors – still in search of some good toddler scissors. these were recommended to me by my pink & green mama friend
• adhesives – i keep glue sticks on novi’s art table. i have too many other types of glues from old elmer’s to hot glue guns to wood glues, etc. i also keep a lot of tape around, like scotch, masking, duct. my favorite is artist’s tape for blocking borders and areas where novi paints, but this can be done with masking tape in a pinch.
• rags – i use old washcloths, old tshirts, old cloth diapers, and anything that can be reused as art rags. i fold them and store them in the bottom of our art cabinet along with the smocks.

where do i get my art materials?

• michael’s arts and crafts
• local art stores – usually pricier than craft stores, though
• amazon – probably most of my stuff is from here
• dick blick
• oriental trading company
• ikea
• target

obviously there are SOOO many more art materials out there to use, find, discover… this is just a short list of our favorites and some basics from which to choose for your child(ren.) by no means do you need to have all of this stuff in your house – choose the things that you think your kid(s) might enjoy the most, start there, and follow their lead and artistic whims.

*note: for those under 2, i’d recommend safe (aka – edible) play doughs that you make yourself, thick crayons, and sensory materials (known in the art therapy world as pre-art materials) like dried beans, rice, shaving cream, etc. also squares of colorful fabrics or felts.

Related posts:

1. scribble drawing
2. who can resist watercolors?
3. waxing aesthetic
4. tissue tie-dye
5. color wonder