Brava Art Press » Art Materials

Date: 15 Oct 2018

Tag: art education, art for early childhood children, art for elementary school, art for young children, art projects for primary schools, children art projects

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Art materials

We use a wide range of art materials in our lessons with a view on utilising recycled resources to be economical and sustainable.

Paper

using cartridge paper jug with vase 1 ream A3 size 120 gsm cartridge paper or drawing paper of about 80 lbs.

This paper will be good for painting, drawing, printmaking and collage. If budget is small, any kind of brown paper, copy paper, wrapping paper would be good.

Paint

Elementary/Primary: Good quality Heavy Body Tempera:

Paint bottle colours

Best results Sax VersaTemp and Chroma2 Heavy Body Tempera in the following colours: 1 x 2lt. – 0.5 gallon – Cool Blue, Cool Red, Cool Yellow, Warm Blue, Warm Red, Warm Yellow, Black and 2 x 2 lt. White.

With these colours many other colours can be mixed.

bright painting

This tempera paint is versatile as it paints well on different surfaces like paper, cardboard, dried clay and most importantly; it is ideal for printmaking, card printing, foam printing and lino cut printing as long as it is applied on the printing block with a sponge roller.
Water colours: good quality dry or liquid water colour will be fine.

Middle school and high school our best results have been Chromacryl acrylic paint.

Glue

Glue should be purchased according to the age group of students. It is important to get a versatile glue especially for the primary years. For construction, collage, textiles, or as a general sealer we use Chromacryl Impasto Gel Medium, a thick non running glue like acrylic gel. For projects that require thinner glue or to seal collages cards for print making, it can be thinned down with water. This item is an OPTION instead of PVA or Mod Podge glue.

Ink

Chromacryl Waterproof Drawing Ink, ideal for pen and ink and paint brush drawing, can be thinned down to create grey washes. The best way to dispense ink to students is to pour a bit into clean Jam jars with lids.Ink already dispensed must never be returned to the original bottle as bacteria will spoil the entire content of the bottle. Also, ink diluted with water will develop bacteria very rapidly.

Pens

According to the age group: felt pens, black pens are essential for drawing. For young children the felt pens should washable. For older students Sharpies or any other water proof pens are fine. Bamboo pens for young students it is recommended to cut the tips by 1mm for easier handling, very economic pens for ink drawing.

Drawing

Natural charcoal, willow charcoal, medium size 2 cans of fixative spray or strong hair spray, Derwent pencils ranging from F to B 8 are our favourite range. Black permanent felt pens, medium size tips. This item is presented as an OPTION as pens are expensive. They are effective when applying washes of colour, (water colours, thin down paint) over the drawings as they don’t run.

Paint Brushes

We use hog hair paint brushes, # 4 and # 6 , cheap round pointed brushes for water colour. For glue we buy cheap short handle brushes.

Cardboard

block printing on cardboard Cardboard of different sizes and quality, will depend on the project.

For printmaking, 1 x A5 size piece per student, of cardboard about 1 to 2mm thick (straw board). Cardboard can be recycled from students home, see list of recycled materials.

Recycled Art Materials, we like to combine old and new art materials in our lessons. We have a PDF Recycled Materials list that we send home with students for parents to donate.
Our recycled materials page has a list of what we collect and use and here’s a link to the PDF version.

How to use and source recycled materials

This post is a part of The Art Ed Blogger’s Network: Monthly Tips and Inspiration from Art Teacher Blogs. On the first Tuesday each month, each of these art teacher blogs will post their best ideas on the same topic.

Participating Art Teacher Blogs:

About the Author

Raquel Redmond studied Fine Art and Design at The George Washington University in Washington D.C., USA. She has also studied Fine Art and Printmaking at the Queensland College of Art Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland.