Let 'Em Paint!

As a college art major and a mother of five home-schooled children, I know that children of all ages love to paint! However, I also recognize that painting can be messy and time-consuming and probably not on most moms' top ten list of favorite activities to do with their children.

My purpose for this post is to say, "Let the children paint!"

There are a lot of art projects we can do with our children, but take my word for it - painting is the probably the most rewarding. It is well worth the time, the effort, and the clean-up to get your kids painting. Consider a child attempting a pencil, marker, or crayon drawing of a tiger, for example. A complex subject, to be sure, but a popular one with children. Now, consider the added excitement and possibilities of painting the tiger using tempera or poster paints!

The beautiful tiger above, by Kalvin, age 10, was painted using only the three primaries (red, yellow, and blue), which he mixed to get just the right colors. You can see two more examples of painted tigers on the Blackfoot Art Center weblog.

Here are some tips for providing successful painting experiences at your house:

1) Use tempera paints or poster paints, which are brighter, thicker, and much easier to mix and manipulate than water colors. I suggest using only the primary colors - red, yellow, and blue - plus white and black. Then, it is up to the children to mix the secondary (orange, green, purple) and tertiary colors (yellow red, maroon, turquoise, etc), as well as shades and tints (pink, sky blue, etc.). What a great, hands-on way to learn color theory! Your child will love the beautiful variations of green, for example, that can be created for outdoor scenes by mixing blue and yellow, compared to the bottled kelly green, which is not found in nature at all! Use old tin pie pans for paint palettes; you may need more than one for a painting project.

Hint: Teach your child that when mixing colors, always add dark colors to light colors. A light color added to a dark color is quickly absorbed so that in order to get the desired color, a lot of paint may be wasted. To create a shade, add just a drop of black to the color; for a tint, add a brushful of the color to white.

Another hint: Encourage your child to use opposite colors on the color wheel to create grey instead of using black and white. Use two opposites that are prevalent in the painting for a much more interesting grey, such as blue mixed with orange, yellow mixed with purple, or green mixed with red.

2) Use heavy paper, such as sketching, drawing, or watercolor paper to paint on. Size should be at least 10 X 13 inches, masking taped around all sides to a smooth masonite or drawing board.

3) Cover the work space with newspapers. Use large water containers (empty margerine or cottage cheese tubs work very well) and a variety of brush types and sizes, including large soft brushes for filling in larger areas with color, and medium to small brushes for more detail. Use large button-up shirts for paint smocks to protect clothing, or purchased paint smocks.

4) When planning a painting, use these tips:

- Encourage the child to focus on a specific subject. In other words, instead of painting a forest scene, focus on something in the forest such as a bear with her cub(s) or a campfire scene with a forest backdrop.
- Use plenty of resource materials for topic ideas. We use magazines, old calendar photos, and art books to find great subject ideas.
- Fill in all of the paper with paint, even "white" areas should be painted, using a very light tint (such as a bluish white to represent clouds). Remember that the sky touches the horizon. There is no empty white space between the sky and the ground (a common misconception for young children).

6) Once the work is completely dry, carefully remove the masking tape and cut a mat from poster board or matboard. Insert and proudly display your child's artwork.