Know thy basic art supply

Hi there,

 Welcome aboard.
 As promised, I am starting this blog to communicate and share with you, our journey in the magical world of art, with kids.

 Along the way I will share some basic information about what, how and why we do things in the class and also tips and information for you parents, on handling an artsy kid at home.

 This post being the first is dedicated for the basic things we need for art.

 Though we know them by sight, we seldom give a second thought to know about their inherent qualities. This post is to give a little deeper knowledge on the basic stuff we use. 

Art Surface

This is basically the surface that we use to do our artwork on. There are n number of preferred art supports available. Let us discuss the bare basics suitable for kids. 

Drawing notebooks:

There are many names for this multi-sized multi-variety drawing notebooks that are in sale in the art stores - Drawing pads, sketch pads, painting pads for different media and so on. 

For the newbies they all look alike. The difference between them will mainly be the grain of the paper (usually specified by their weight in GSM- grams per square meter.) that suits each need. 

Sizes and orientation of pages also differs as per usage preference. 

The ones with spiral rings on one end is much suitable for kids since they can be turned over easily. It usually comes with a tear-off line, if you want to preserve a particular project you can tear it with ease.

For kids it is sufficient to buy regular drawing pads with copy paper style papers. But the ones with slightly thicker than normal printing A4 sheets (higher the GSM thicker the paper) holds good for more messy and watery artists like my kids.

Paper Roll

These can also be handy when you have a really artsy kid who loves doing endless sketching and drawing whenever he/she wants. 
This spool can be rolled down as you need.
Readily available in many stores, like ikea.

  Canvas

There again is a huge array, but let us see the commonly used type-The cotton canvas.

Cotton canvases are basically cotton fabrics stretched into frames and primed for a smoother finish. This type of canvas is a wonderful surface for tempera, acrylic, oil, gouche or mixed media paintings.

Kids love the brilliant white and smooth surfaces that ink out wonderful texture as they paint on it. They are much easier to use and cheaper than linen and silk canvases.

 Professional artists stretch their own canvases but as bare basic moms let us stick on to the simple pre-stretched (stretching-readying a cotton fabric for painting) cotton canvases available in various sizes. 

Canvas boards/panels

Another cheaper version of canvas- this again is cotton canvas stretched on thin wooden boards instead of frames. This gives a overall sturdy feel.
These boards are cheaper than the ones in frames and are good choice for beginners.

Canvas Pads

Sketch book style canvas pads for varied needs and in varied sizes are now available. These are pre stretched and primed acid free sheets of canvase papers for acrylic, oil or gouche paintings.
  These are again a cheaper alternative for canvas frames.

Art Medium

Oil pastels

             Oil pastels are made of color pigments and oil/binder material, and thus have more covering ability like creamy butter. The color intensity is high too.  

This is different from the wax crayons which has more wax than pigment in it, although some oil pastels have little wax in it too (for non-sticky nature), since it is used by kids.
Oil pastels tend to make a lot of mess n stickier than crayons but makes brilliant colored marks on paper. But the binding material used in some brands are slightly toxic in nature and thus not advised for kids younger than 2.5yrs old to use. 

It is wise to choose a good brand oil pastels when giving it to very young kids.

  Paints

There is a whole range of kid’s paints.

Tempera and Poster Colors comes first.

 Tempera paint with egg based pigment binder in traditional use nowadays is more synthetic.
Poster colors (like Buncho)are water based synthetic paints. Viscosity and  variety of colors make it easier for kids to use straight out of tubs instead of mixing in palettes.

Finger paints is another great option for younger kids who love to have a feel of the 'color':-) Home made finger paints using food colors is a affordable yet safe choice.

Water Colors

The safest bet, when it comes to painting with kids like poster colors. 

The intensity is lower than tempera or acrylic (although kids try to take huge blobs of it to make it intense). They come in two types - cakes and tubes.
 Cakes are less messy, can be cleaned easily with a wet tissue/damp cloth.

 Tubes need little expertise and care since one hard push will bring lot of paint out- but mixing colors is easier with tubes and a palette for the smaller kids.

 (Acrylics, Oil and other paint varieties will be discussed in later posts.)

Markers

Marker/Sketch pens, are great to color, outline and border can be used for a variety of reasons. They are easy to handle and less messy. But it takes way lot more time and dedication to make similar strokes to fill big spots thus not overly popular with speedy kids like me :-) 

There again is a wide variety in this. Water soluble/washable markers, flat, brush and Fine tipped markers and the list is endless.

Colored Pencils

Pencils are always a great choice when it comes to practice since kids are already comfortable with the pencil grip and the application is also smoother.

The colors are milder or deeper in tone as per the variety. Water color pencils are so much convenient for those who are scared of the mess from water color tubes. Even pastels are available in pencil forms which are so much fun and easy to use.Rolling crayons in pencil form are another good invention to make less messy art. 

Pencils

The most basic and essential element of art/drawing. Pencils with glossy holds and prints outside can be left alone. 

Go for proper camlin/natraj style pencils (nostalgic much? :-) )
Pencils are named in many varieties- the major category would be H & B.

 H - Hardness, how much the lead reaches into the paper.

 B - Blackness, the darkness or intensity of the lead.
It stretches into both extremes. From 6H - 9B.

 Pencil lead is made of a mixture of graphite and clay. The graphite is the part that makes the dark mark on the paper. The clay is there because graphite on its own is far too soft and crumbly to write or draw with. 

The grade, or hardness, of a pencil is due to the proportions of graphite and clay (or polymer/resin). More graphite makes for a softer lead, and more clay makes for harder lead. Thin leads for mechanical pencils are similar, but with a polymer or resin taking the place of the clay.

Wooden pencil leads also have a little wax or grease added for extra smoothness. In mechanical pencil leads, this is replaced with oil.

We use HB (Equal hard and black) for basic sketching and 2B, 4B/6B as per our preference for shading purposes. When you're actually using a pencil, you want it to make marks on paper. The softer the lead, the darker the marks it will make. 

 Artists often use a range of different pencils for a single drawing, switching to a harder lead when they want sketching or light shading, and a softer lead for darker areas.

The downside of softer lead is that you're getting the extra darkness by putting more of the lead on the paper, so it gets used up faster. That means you'll be sharpening more often, or with a mechanical pencil, clicking out lead more often.

Charcoals are another option of cheap yet effective sketching tool now available in pencil form. But these are not advisable for younger kids.

Erasers

   Always invest in a good quality white eraser which comes in handy with our extra dark pencils and get ready to sweep away the mount of eraser dust kids are going to make. Erasers of funky shapes and fragrances can be left alone. 
Roll-on erasers, electric erasers and knead-able erasers will be covered in later posts.

Brushes

An important investment for any artist. Brushes in itself is a huge topic, let us go bare basic again. They are categorized by bristle size, shape, material and brush handle. 

For kids - one flat, one round and one detail brush in varied sizes(flat being the bigger size) are enough investment.

Brushes make different impression on art support based on the material they are made of.

Synthetic (nylon), natural hair (horse/ox) and so on.

 Simple synthetic brushes with medium sized handles are fine for kids.

(I will post separately later, on brushes - how to handle and maintain them with kids)

Other stuff

 Cleaning is a big trouble when it comes to art (unless you are a mom like me who loves messy art). Always have wet wipes with you to save the trouble of cleaning stickiness with oil pastels.

Rolls of kitchen towel are life savers for us while painting. If you are eco-friendly, a piece of cloth will do just fine for all.

 Small plastic disposable plates with dividers will do well as a palette in a hurry. 

When you are designating a corner for your child to do art, keep in mind that it should be airy and well lit with natural light. 
That is all for now. Have an artsy day…

See you soon with something else...