School Paints: Free Painting Activities for teachers in the classroom

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...

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...

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...

Making Monster Paint Blob Faces is great fun for kids of all ages.   They are colourful, very simple to create and they look great displayed around the classroom.   LEVEL: Pre-school and Primary.  Monster Paint Blob Faces You will need: Tempera Poster Paint – in squeeze bottles is helpful Paper Marker Pen Drinking Straws Let’s get started: Squirt a nice small blob of paint on to the paper.   Thin the paint with a little water if necessary. If you do not have a squeeze bottle just use a spoon to spoon a small pool of paint. Using the drinking straw gently blow the paint around so it spreads out into an interesting monster-like blob shape.   Once dry, you can decorate your blobs with the marker pen or anything else you might find interesting like glitter or string for hair. TIPS:    -   Keep it to one colour. -    We painted small white circles for the eyes on each blob. -  ...

School paints that are designed for use with children can easily become contaminated with bacteria or mould, this also can lead to a very strong sickening odour. Some school paint I found for sale in a shop that was contaminated. The paint is seperated in the bottle. School Paint is very different to crayons and pencils as “all children’s liquid paint is an alive product” until it dries on your paper.   No matter what brand type or colour it will need some care to prolong its workable life. Just like canned food in the supermarket a preservative is added to a paint formulation to keep the paint in top condition.     As this type of paint often contains organic materials that can decay if not stored properly or if stored for a long period of time. School paints differ from house paint as it is used once for one project but using School Paints we are using the same paint day after day and again and again.    Extra care is needed to k...

Using and reading the Colour Wheel: Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .   The colour wheel is a great guide used to understand the theory of colour and of mixing colours that go well together. So how does it work? Find the 3 Primary Colours - Red, yellow and blue on the wheel.   Notice how they are evenly split around the wheel. Find the colour directly in between any two primary colours on the wheel. E xample: Find - Yellow & Red the colour in between is Orange. This colour (orange) is made my mixing two primaries either side.   The same can be done with the other primary colours R ed & Blue = Violet Yellow & Blue = Green Follow us on Pinterest , Facebook , Twitter , Goggle Plus and Flipboard .

LEVEL: Pre-school and early primary. This is a great out door nature inspired painting project.   It’s always good to get outdoors and let the children talk about all the colours that they can see around them in the trees, grass and in the sky.   Using these colours to create artworks is ideal for learning colour mixing, squeezing (fine motor skills) and natural colours.   It is simple quick and colourful fun. You can use a small spray bottle filled with water to create your own rain on a sunny day. You will need: : Tempera Powder Paints. : Kitchen sieve. : Old spoons. : A small spray bottle filled with clean water. : Paper - heavier construction paper or cardboard works best here. : Water tub or tray. : Paper towels for clean-up. Get outdoors with colour Let’s get started: You can do this in the rain; but we found it cleaner and easier to create your own rain with a small spray bottle filled with water. Layout your sheets of pape...

LEVEL: Pre-school and Primary. This is quick, colourful fun and easy.         Wonky Spider Webs [ Follow us on Facebook  and Pinterest  ] You will need: : Paper : Thicken Tempera Paint or a coloured PVA like 3D Craft Paint : Scraper or an anything plastic like an old plastic ruler. : Apron and a cover sheet or newspapers or paper towels. [ How to Thicken Tempera Paint ] Let’s get started: You can either outline with a pencil around a circular object to make a perfect circle or you can just do it by hand to make a wonky shape, like we did. It is easier to use a bottle with a nozzle cap for better control. We used a plastic ruler. Start from the outside and work inwards to keep the basic shape. Try not to use too many colours. When you have filled in the shape use a blunt straight edged object and drag from the inside to the outer edge.   We used a plastic ruler.   You will need t...