School Paints: Free Painting Activities for teachers in the classroom

James Edwards: Auckland artist  James Edwards   paints amazing artworks with a FAS  Super Tempera School . Click here for more images and interview with James. James Edwards James Edwards Paints with Super Tempera: www.FASpaints.com   

Hot Or Cold? You Decide! by Ron Gribble Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .   Hot Or Cold? You Decide! Do not try to make a colour that is neither hot nor cold. Neither hot nor cold is to be grey, and that is one step away from mud. This is a secret that took me ages to finally think about long enough to realise that I was missing out on simplifying my colour mixing. If you decide early, what do you want? Now you must make sure that you are choosing pigments that allow you to achieve this end. I am not saying that you should not have cool colours in a hot colour mix, or the other way round, but I am saying that you should favour one or the other. There are many wonderful opportunities that you will miss out on if you do not understand the importance of using hot and cold colours in contrast to each other. Any colour will probably have elements of cool and warm in them, but when they are in shade, they will have more of the cool blues,...

Children’s liquid Watercolour School Paints – Is it a dye or a paint? If you look around websites at school paints these days you see Tempera, Poster Paint, Gouache and now in the last 7 years or more there are these watercolours. Brands like Discount School Supplies “Liquid Watercolor” and  Sargent Art “Watercolor Magic” are popping up. What are they?  Are they new? Is it a Watercolour Paint or a School Dye? A watercolour or a dye? Sargent Art “Watercolor Magic” Dyes: Using waterbased dye in the classroom as an educational painting experience  has been around for over 40 years in a lot of countries like Australia, England, New Zealand & Singapore.  But it would seem that it is a relatively new thing in USA. This may be why it is considered it as a magic watercolour. Is it a Paint or a Dye? Both these brands of watercolour paints are technically dyes and not paints. Liquid Watercolor and Watercolor Magic are vegetab...

Painting with PVA Glue and School Paints: There are a lot of ways you can use glue to create fun colourful effects with paint. One of my favourites is to create glue resist paintings. Another great and fun idea is to get the children to paint a secret message on the paper, once dried mix up all the classes’ paintings so each child ends up with a secret mystery painting to discover with the painted sponge. Loads of fun! Painting with PVA Glue LEVEL: Pre-school and Primary. You will need: A bright coloured tempera poster paint  PVA Glue – in squeeze bottles is helpful Paper – Bright coloured paper is a great idea. Pencil Sponge or an old dish cloth. Simple designs seem to work best Let’s get started: Draw a design onto your paper lightly with a pencil and then go over it with PVA glue.  Or simply draw a design directly onto paper with using the glue. Using a small squeeze bottle is ideal for small hands but you could use a thin brush to paint your d...

Mixing Colours: by Ron Gribble Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .   It has been my experience that the hardest problem that all artists face is mixing their paints to make the colours that they are wanting. About 80% of my painting time is spent mixing colours. If I could teach that one thing with a magic ‘bullet’ I would patent the idea, and go on a world speaking tour. It does not matter if your medium of choice is Oils, Water colours, Acrylics, Pastels, or whatever else that I have forgotten to mention, the problems and mistakes are all the same. There are however some very pointed tips that will help you to focus your attention on each of the problems. If you already have the talent, and the desire to put in the hard work, I can shorten the learning curve for you. I will post my detailed answer to each of the headings below. I invite you to consider the following; Know your colours on your pallet. Three or four mixed t...

Keep your Work Space Clean. by Ron Gribble    Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .      Not only clean, but organised also. If you cannot control the colour while it is on your pallet, how can you hope to control it on your painting??  If you are not organised you will get frustrated, and rush it. Near enough is not good enough, and never will be. Below is my studio pallet set up on glass. There are some points below that will help you to achieve nice clean colours;  A simple idea but it works so well. Never mix colours with a brush. There is no quicker way to lose control of a colour. Note the Pallet Trowel that I use above. This does not have your knuckles receiving as much paint as the brush does. Clean your pallet off regularly, you cannot be too fussy. When you switch to light colours, clean it off again. If you are painting outside ( Pleine Aire ) then you should be making sure that the wind...

Atmosphere. How Does This Effect My Colours? by Artist Ron Gribble Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .   The answer is everywhere. If you are painting a still life, in the corner of a shed somewhere, it is going to be less, because there is less distance in your painting. But the more distance you put into your painting, the more that atmosphere is going to be a factor. What do I mean by atmosphere? The way that light and thus colour is changed by the water particles, or lack of water particles that exists in the atmosphere of the day. The time of day, the heat of the day, the time of year, the place on Earth where you are painting, there are so many factors, that will all combine to make each day what it is. This atmospheric colour will be the dark colours that are visible in your scene, from the front right through to the back.  How Does This Effect My Colours The atmospheric colour will be lighter in the back, as the distant co...

Painting a T-Shirt with Fastex fabric and textile inks: Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .    Artist Fiona Appleton Painting a T shirt is so easy and you have something great to wear at the end of it.  You can buy plain white T shirts incredibly cheaply, so painting on them is no more expensive than painting on a big piece of paper.  You just can’t beat personalising your own designer clothes, and it’s much more fun, so much cheaper and about 1000 times more personal than buying a branded T-shirt. You can get ideas from anywhere from the TV, off the web or from your kids’ latest favourite film release. Fastex Ink Preparation: Pre-wash the t-shirt according to the label instructions without softeners. When the t-shirt is dry iron it to smooth out any creases. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit snugly inside the tee shirt to prevent the paint from seeping through to the other side. Insert the protective cardb...

Artist Tip: Three or four colours mixed at one time. Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .    Mixing too many colours .. Mud! We will exclude white from this rule, so I am talking about pigment colours only. Any more than four of these mixed together in large proportions will end in the same colour no matter what colours you are using.   MUD!!! You can mix every colour that you have available together in one mix if you want to, but I think that will be very rare, ( never in my case ) but the large proportion of the total mix, at least 90%, must be made up from no more than three of four of the pigments on your pallet. Microscopic amounts will make a difference, so make a small sample mix first, add tiny amounts at a time. Mix it well and see if you are heading in the right direction. If not, remove it and start again. No it is not wasted paint until you allow it to go on your painting were you should not put it. ...

Know your Colours | By Artist Ron Gribble www.rongribble.com Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .    Know your colours It does not matter what colours that you are using on your Pallet, you need to know them inside out!! Therefore it is reasonable to keep these colour to a minimum, without restricting your combinations. I have kept to the same colours, with very small variations for about 35 years. The first consideration in choosing these colours is the colour fast qualities of each. I have two options for each of the varieties below, one lighter in value, and one darker in value; Warm reds, earth colours, blues, yellow or orange, greens, and of course white. It does not matter what colours you start with, you should not change them unless you have a very good reason.  Colours This way, you will know EXACTLY what happens when you combine them in a mix. I have begun to try different colours to check that I have not been...