Painting with kids can be so much fun but also overwhelming if you don't know where to begin. The thought of paint everywhere is enough to never get started. In this post, I want to share all my best tips and ideas around painting for kids. It's so beneficial to development and creativity!
I'll be sharing everything you need to know from the benefits of painting, to the best painting supplies to use, to ideas for creating painting projects, and so much more.
Scroll down below to learn all our best painting tips and ideas!
Benefits of Painting for Kids
From a very young age painting with kids has a range of benefits. But even if you have an older child, you'll still notice the benefits of getting them involved in painting.
These are just a few of the benefits of painting with kids:
- Painting supports fine and gross motor skills between grasping a paintbrush, using Q-tips to paint with, or even working on a large surface where you’re moving around a lot.
- It inspires creativity and critical thinking when they’re creating and coming up with ideas! It sets a great foundation for being able to think critically.
- Art can give children the tools to express their feelings. Drawing or painting a picture can be much easier than using words to express their feelings.
- Since painting takes such intense focus, it helps children build memory and the ability to concentrate. Remembering how to draw a flower uses our core memory and it also gives children a chance to practice the ability to concentrate and focus.
- Using a paintbrush and putting it on paper puts hand-eye coordination to work as well.
- It allows children to explore the process of experimentation and problem-solving if what they originally thought doesn't work out.
There are also many more benefits to painting for kids. No matter if you have a toddler, preschooler, or an older child, they're sure to get a wide range of benefits.
Best Paint Supplies for Kids
Before you get started with painting, you'll want to have some supplies on hand. You can purchase a range to provide options or just start with a few things to get your child started. I've listed some of our favourite supplies below.
Types of Paint
- Watercolour Paints: A great starting point for kids. These ones are great quality with beautiful colours.
- Liquid Watercolours: These are a bit more versatile than standard watercolours as they can be used on lots of different surfaces.
- Acrylic Paint: Great for when you need a thicker paint. Ideal for canvas painting.
- Tempera Paint: Perfect for toddlers as they’re an egg-based paint making for easy clean up.
- Paint Pens: A super fun tool to use as you can draw more easily than with a brush.
- Paint Sticks: Great for when you want less mess as they’re used like a crayon without the need for cups of water or brushes.
- Homemade Paints: You can make your own at home with a variety of materials!
Brushes & Paper
- Paint Pallets: Great for setting out lots of different colours of paint. I love these for invitation-style art.
- Paint Brushes: This set includes a wide variety of sizes suitable for a variety of age groups. Also great if you want thick brush strokes and then add finer details.
- Sponge Brushes: Small hands will love these since they aren’t ready for brushes. Older kids will love how fun sponges can be too!
- No-Spill Paint Cups: These cups come in all colours so you can paint without the worry of water spilling all over the place and ruining your paintings!
- Watercolour Paper: A sturdy option for projects where you’ll be applying lots of water. Thinner paper usually doesn’t hold up well.
- Canvases: Perfect for older kids who want something more than paper. This set is great for hanging up on a gallery wall.
- Painting Books: These are so much fun for kids who want to paint but struggle with coming up with ideas. They’re basically colouring books for paint.
- Abstract Materials: Try using things like sticks and leaves, sponges at home, forks, stamps, etc.
Storing & Organising Art Supplies
After you've decided on what painting supplies you'll want to use, consider how you'll store them. Organising art supplies is incredibly important or it can turn into a big mess very quickly. With organised supplies, you'll always know where everything is.
There are a variety of ways you can go about this, but here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Utility Cart: A utility cart is a great way to store lots of supplies and keep them easily accessible.
- Cabinet: For a wider range of supplies, you may opt for an art cabinet as they have more space.
- Plastic Storage Bins: They're perfect for further organising supplies so you can find everything you need quickly. Try to mix and match different sizes!
- Reusable Pouches: These are great for storing paintbrushes and other small supplies!
- Label Maker: When your collection starts to build, a label maker is great so you know where everything is!
- Art Caddy: An art caddy is perfect for when you have just a few supplies and want to be able to move them from one place to another. Turntables are great to use as art caddies!
- Magazine Holders: Magazine holders are great for storing paper, activity books, and other supplies.
- Paper Drawers: if you have a lot of paper, paper drawers can be a great way to keep things organized.
If you have a lot of supplies consider creating an art room! We turned our playroom into a craft room with our Dreambox craft cupboard taking centre stage!
Displaying Kids’ Paintings
You have your supplies, they’re organized and you’re almost ready to get painting! We love to find fun ways to display our kids’ artwork too. It helps them gain confidence while also decorating the house.
Here are a few of our favourite ideas:
- Art Frames: Perfect for displaying kid's artwork in a frame. This one holds a lot of art so it's easy to change what's displayed!
- Gallery Walls: Take it a step further and create a full gallery wall of your kids' art!
- Corkboards: For an easier solution, you can pin pieces of art on a giant cork board!
- Clip Display: I love these kinds of displays for art work. You just clip them on string.
There are also other ideas like taping paintings to the wall with fun washi tape, displaying them in a digital frame or putting them on a display shelf. There are so many fun ideas to try!
Getting Started with Painting with Kids
Now it's time to get started painting! I want to stress the importance of sitting back to see how their creativity unfolds naturally. While product-based art projects are great, process art includes a wide variety of benefits too!
Here's what I suggest as you get started:
- Select a suitable space that is clean and has lots of room for kids to explore. Make sure you lay down newspaper or an old tablecloth to catch paint spills and protect the surface.
- Lay out a variety of materials for kids to explore. Multiple paint types, brushes, and paper are great for kids to explore different options.
- Optionally, lay out some art books for inspiration on types of works they can create.
- Create your own art with them! This can help demonstrate how they can get started with different brush strokes or how to clean off brushes.
- Provide tips and support without trying to instruct what they should do. Inform them and see what they do!
- Accept the mess as it happens. Painting is supposed to be messy after all!
In the end, just have fun letting your child create!
Painting Ideas for Kids
Try some of these fun painting ideas for kids. This huge list is full of fun painting ideas that children of all ages will enjoy. While process art is great, doing a project is so much fun.
I even wrote a book of fun painting project ideas because we love painting projects so much. Below you can see an image of just a few of the projects included.
Here are a few ideas you get started with:
- Fork Painting: This is where unique materials as brushes come into play! Use forks to create a fun flower painting.
- Water Pistol: This project is perfect for summer! Fill a water pistol with paint and watch as kids make some really fun creations.
- Scratch Art Project: This project invites kids to explore the magic of scratch art. Underneath a layer of black acrylic paint lies a vibrant canvas of oil pastels waiting to be revealed.
- Painting Kindness Rocks: Who says painting has to be on paper? Try this fun project painting on rocks! You could use paint or why not try paint pens.
- Foil Painting: Another fun surface to paint on is foil.
- Salt painting: This project involves adding paint to an outline created of glue and salt. As the paint touches the salt it spreads along the outline.
- Painting on ice- If it's cold outside what could be more fun than painting on ice. Of course, this can also be done inside on a smaller scale if you freeze a little ice.
- Bubble Painting: This project involves blowing air into a colourful bubble solution with a straw so that kids create unique bubble spills on the page. It's such a fun way to experiment with paint!
Be sure to check our painting book for 60 more fun painting ideas!
If you want to discover painting ideas by age here are some collections of painting idea for babies, toddlers, and older children:
You could also check out some of our other lists of painting ideas:
- Mess free painting
- Canvas painting ideas
- Watercolor painting
- Q tip painting ideas
- Rock painting ideas
- Flower painting ideas
- Painting prompts for kids
Tips for Painting with Kids
Before we wrap up this post, I want to share these final tips for painting with kids. It can be so much fun to paint together and these tips will help enhance the experience even more!
- Manage the mess by opting for washable paints, having kids wear aprons (or old clothes), laying down newspaper, and keeping wipes or a bowl of water for easy clean up nearby.
- Celebrate creativity and worry less about the end product! Ask children about what they've created with open-ended questions like, "What inspired you to use these colours?" or "Can you tell me about this part of your painting?"
- Adapt based on your child's age and skill level. Younger artists will likely find most enjoyment from finger painting or using big brushes while older children may be interested in different blending techniques to get the look they desire.
- Do it together by creating your own painting or working on a big project together! This can be a great opportunity for quality time.
- Keep supplies organised so they're easy to find when it's time!
Conclusion
That's a wrap! Painting has so many benefits for kids and it's such a fun activity to do together! We hope this post gave you some helpful tips, advice, and ideas for painting with kids.
Don't forget to check our painting book as you start to explore the world of painting for kids! Have fun painting.
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