How to Use Art Supples

What's so great about using art supplies is that there's no one right way. Each person is creative in their own individual way. While one person will only want to paint on canvas, another may only want to paint on paper. Neither is better than the other. Learning to explore your full range of creativity with art supplies can be enlightening and fun.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paints
• Paintbrushes
• Canvas
• Crayons
• Modeling clay
• Construction paper
• Sketch pad/paper
• Pencils
• Scissors
• Glue
• Water

1. Decide what you'd like to create. With such a wide availability of art supplies, you have a large selection of options.

2. Select a canvas for your paint if you're painting. This can be a canvas board or simple construction paper. Arrange your paints.

3. Use paintbrushes to paint a picture. Clean paintbrushes after each color before using another color.

4. Color with crayons in coloring books or on construction paper.

5. Use your hands to sculpt and mold modeling clay into different shapes. Some modeling clay air dries so once you create the sculpture you want, it can dry permanently.

6. Use various objects as tools to carve words or designs into clay before it dries. This can be pencils, knives or old Popsicle sticks.

7. Draw with plain pencils or charcoal pencils on sketch pads. You can draw people, animals or objects.

8. Use glue on paper if you want to create three-dimensional shapes and objects.

Tips & Warnings

• Children are naturally creative. Providing a variety of art supplies and allowing them to create on their own fuels their imagination.
• Clean paintbrushes thoroughly after each use.
• Fingerpaints are ideal for children who are too young to maneuver paintbrushes.
• There is no right way to be creative, so feel free to draw, paint or sculpt whatever you want.
• Children should only use non-toxic paints.
• Children should be supervised when using scissors; it's best to allow them to only use safety scissors.