I have often remarked to close friends that for me, logistics make or break everything. I can have the best idea in the world, but if I can’t figure out how to pull it off on a practical level, it is no more useful to us than a cloud: something pretty to look at, but impossible to take hold of.
Painting is one of those "nice ideas" that floated airily overhead until I worked out a system to make it feasible on a regular basis. My pal Sarah asked me for the details, and I thought I’d share them here. There’s nothing earth-shattering here, but you should know that I am the easily frazzled type who really must think things through on the most basic level or else my plans go all kablooey.
I use high-quality watercolor paints, the kind that come in little tubes. These are very rich pigments and a little goes a long way. We used to use paint jars but they took up so much storage space, and the lids fell under the table and rolled away, and there was always mess involved.
Then I found these cute little plastic paint palettes at Michael’s for 99 cents each. They have six wells, perfect for mixing colors. I put a dab of the three primary colors in one well each, and a smaller dab of each in two more of the wells, so the kids can mix their green, orange, and purple. Each child gets her own paint palette.
I have written before about investing in good watercolor paper and brushes. (Here’s my long art supplies post from Bonny Glen, and its sequel.) These tubes have lasted us for over a year.
For painting boards, we use some markerboards (dry erase boards) I bought on clearance a long while back. I had actually ordered an official painting board from Paper Scissors Stone, and when I arrived I smacked my forehead because it was—a markerboard. But way more expensive. Doh.
Here’s a tip from a Bonny Glen reader for another inexpensive kind of painting board. Whatever you use, they sure do make painting a lot easier to clean up. The boards wipe right off, and we stack ours near the closet when they’re not in use. Voila—nice clean table.
We use pickle jars for water and a cloth diaper for drying brushes. Oh! And here’s a great tip from—I think—Donna Simmons of Christopherus Homeschool Resources (whose First Grade Syllabus I’ll be reviewing here later this week, by the way, and whose work I praised in my Waldorf series in the spring). If this wasn’t Donna’s suggestion, it was a speaker from a Waldorf homeschooling conference on a DVD I watched a while back. I should tell you more about that, too, sometime. But I digress. The great tip I was getting to: it’s a sweet way to teach children to properly care for their brushes. You take the brush and tell a little story about a gnome who doesn’t like his beard to stay wet. We never leave the brush sitting in the jar of water because that beard will be soaked and oh, what a sad little gnome. And we mustn’t push too hard and bend his beard every which way. He doesn’t like that at all.
Ever since I told this tale to Rose and Bean, they have treated their brushes with special care. No more leaving them soaking in the pickle jar. They carefully dry the "beard" on the cloth and smooth it into a point. It’s nice.
I explained to the kids about the expensive paper, and how in order to use it for our paintings, we have to take great care not to squander it. They understood. They’ve painted on plain white copy paper, and they can feel the difference.
Rose says she "needs to paint at least two pictures a day" or she just doesn’t feel right. She finds it a calming, peaceful activity. Here’s a painting she says was inspired by a poem called "The Little Rose Tree" by Rachel Field:
(As you can see, we don’t bother to tape our paper down flat, as most watercolor technique books recommend.)
When they were younger, I usually wet the paper with a sponge first, per the wet-on-wet watercolor technique you’ll hear about in every Waldorf resource. My very little children, like Wonderboy now at age three, loved touching a brushful of paint to the wet paper and watching the paint swirl around the page. But past the age of five or so, I find that they much prefer to have more control over where their colors go. They know how to use water (either before or after applying paint to paper) to help the paint go where they want it to go, and to blend colors. They love to keep wetting the brush and "pulling" paint from one darker section across a wider area, making a rich blue sky or a lush green meadow.
Sarah had some great art-supply advice of her own to share:
Here is the address for the discount art supplies I was telling you about:
The company reminds me of Rainbow Resource only it is (nearly) exclusively
art supplies. I have bought things in person at conventions and ordered by
phone and online. I highly recommend them. The prices are hard to beat. I
purchased my class supplies for VBS this summer from them. Even with
shipping they were the least expensive alternative (and I always love
supporting a small business anyway).One of my favorite items is their sketchbook journals. They have all sizes
in both 60 and 80# paper. They are $3 for a 6×9 size which are perfect for
little laps in the car.
Always good to know where to stock up on more supplies. We get very excited about painting around here, as you can see. (Kindly ignore the girls squabbling in the background.)
(This clip doesn’t keep replaying every time you load the page, does it? It isn’t supposed to.)
My children have been using water color paints quite a bit recently. I’ll have to look into those paints from the tube. Thanks for all the tips!!! Michael’s is an hour away, but I’ll be close to one this weekend. I see a shopping trip coming up.
Oh, and I love the permalink for this post. LOL!
Lovely Lissa. Thanks for the practical advice. I find art stuff the hardest to manage here with so many different ages to accommodate.
Great post Lissa – thanks! I’m heading to Michael’s today. 🙂
Wonderboy is a movie star! My daughter (15 months) is in love. We just had to watch the video about 2 dozen times. She screams whenever it stops.
Whoa Wonderboy! Oh, Lissa, if you could only bottle that joy! I don’t think I would ever let him leave the paint table. Priceless.
Our conversation has gotten me all excited for lots and lots of art incorporated into our day. I, finally, bit the bullet and sent off my order to Paper, Scissors, Stone for some Stone stick crayons, Lyra block crayons, and Lyra pencils. I also pulled the watercolor tubes out of hiding and just need to get paper. We may never leave art time!!
Great post.
Too cute… I think he is excited to paint 😉
I love those pallets… Michaels also has these little plastic pots with lids to do the paint-in-water thing too 🙂
Oooh, I saw a mom today use an ice cube tray for dispensing paint. So clever!!
Argh, the little icon is showing “ripped”, and I can’t see the video. But I loved your post. We are blessed enough to have found lovely watercolour painting paper for only $2 a stack at a warehouse store. It really makes a huge difference.
Those are great tips. If I can remember where I saw them when I get back in January, I might even try it out. Tigger loves drawing and painting and her Nana does watercolour and I think with that kind of organization, we might actually do it more often. Thanks.
My boys LOVE his! I have to post this comment now because they want to watch again.
My boys LOVE his! I have to post this comment now because they want to watch again.
I am so appreciating your posts on Waldorf-inspired art. This year we are setting aside one morning a week to do either watercolor, felting, clay or other craft.
So far we have only used the little circle watercolors (from Nova Natural). Where do you get the tubes?
And what is a marker board? A dry erase board? We usually use the pull-out cutting board from our kitchen.
I love your tips, I will have to check your blog more often!
Tracy, I bought our paints at Michael’s. You can find tube watercolors at most art supply stores, including (online) Cheap Joe, which, as the name suggests, has good prices.
Oak Meadow also sells them (pricey), as do the Waldorf catalogs like Paper Scissors Stone.
Oh goody! Another Waldorf post! Keep them coming! I’m still doing baby steps slowly bringing to fruit some points Donna and of course *you* bring up. My kids love it and there is such peace as they swirl color after color on their page.
Melissa, those that you use are already one of the best. Bear in mind that Windsor and Newton Artists paints belong to the top of the range while Cotman, I am told, are one grade beneath – ie. for beginners. Be that as it may, where I come from, paints are expensive and we do not have the luxury of using high grade paints. We make do with Koreans and Japanese or even Chinese paints and make the best of using them to our advantage, along the way improving our skills and techniques.
I have all the Waldorf art accoutrements *except* the wherewithall to actually allow the kids to do it. The logistics just seem like such a nightmare. Thanks for breaking it down into tiny little steps.
The most inspirational part of the post, though, was Rose’s comment that she needs to paint 2 pictures per day or she doesn’t feel right. I wonder if my kids would feel that way if they were given the chance to paint on a regular basis.
This has given me a lot to think about.
Great post — thanks! I have to restock my daughter’s watercolor paper supply: the child is rather prolific ….
Love the video 🙂
Great post! Here is our Watercolor post:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Keri/328825/
This is great! I’ve linked.
BTW, I keep meaning to email you and let you know we have finished all the Charlotte books!
Thanks for this post! I, too, need to have little tiny baby steps to make any task seem manageable, and I appreciate your guiding hand.
One tangential question: where and how do you store/display the finished artwork? I find this even more daunting than the creative process. How do you (any of you) respectfully manage the output of your oh-so-productive junior artists? I’d love to hear any thoughts.
I have a question…
Why use watercolors? Do you also use other art mediums for painting? Oils? Pastels?
Also what about lead in the pigments? After all the issues with products from China, I’m being more vigilant about this and it’s nearly impossible to find non-china art supplies in my price range!
thoughts?
We’ve been really struggling with the how to’s of implimenting more art into our days, so I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all these hitty-gritty details to us lay art enthusiasts!
it was _here_ I read about the gnome’s beards!
When I started painting with Puggle, I used that ‘story’ and it has been very helpful… he _mostly_ remembers to keep the beard dry, and paint in the right direction…
I just came back following the link from your latest arts post. I knew I’d read it on someone’s blog—I just couldn’t remember where!