watercolor paints

[monkeyma]

Is stockmar really the best paint for watercolors out there? I was looking at a set from palumba that sells the paint, paper, board, jars, sponge, and brush together. It's a little expensive, but would it last a really long time?

DS is almost 20 months old. Is it too early to start watercolor with him? Right now he has a lot of "free play" in his rhythm and I'd like to give him a little more focus. Or is it better to have free play more at that age? He does really well most the time doing things on his own. I'm looking forward to painting, so maybe I'm a little anxious to try it.

[LuxPerpetua]

I didn't start consistent painting with dd until she was 3.    At age 2 we occasionally did fingerpainting but even if I did not intend it to be fingerpainting it always ended up being fingerpainting in the end (and body painting too).  To be honest, I'd wait.  I think playing with color is great but I wouldn't fork out serious money yet.  You could do lots of things like mix tempera paint with shaving cream, or even let your child paint the bathtub with washable tempera paint.  One thing that we like to do is mix water and food coloring and pipette this onto paper towels to make a design.  That would help with fine motor skills and it's really neat to see colors separate (mix all 3 primary colors together in a glass with water).

We've done wet-on-wet painting for 2.5 years now each Thursday and to be honest I have never used Stockmar paints.  I use watered down Crayola tempera paint and love it.  One 3-bottle set costs around $6 and lasts us 6 months.  I like that I can vary the consistency, and the colors are vivid.  I never plan on using Stockmar paints.  We have a large counter for painting on, so we don't need a painting board.  Here is a blog post I did about our experience, if it is helpful to you: http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/unraveling-the-mystery-of-wet-on-wet-painting/ 

[UnderTheOldOakTree]

I've been doing some wet on wet water color painting with my son since he was about a year and a half.  I give him one color at a time and a big brush and let him play with it some.  He enjoys painting and asks to do it frequently.  It's pretty relaxed and sometimes I will tell a story as I paint with him.

For painting boards so far we have used large 12x12 wooden clip boards that I coated with beeswax polish.  I bought paint brushes and paper at a local craft store and I did order the stockmar paint.  I like it better than the tubes of artists water colors we used previously.  The paints do last a very long time once mixed up in closed jars in the fridge.

Also sometimes we use our water colors to paint on wood cut-outs.  I think this is really ds's favorite kind of painting.

[UnderTheOldOakTree]

I've been doing some wet on wet water color painting with my son since he was about a year and a half.  I give him one color at a time and a big brush and let him play with it some.  He enjoys painting and asks to do it frequently.  It's pretty relaxed and sometimes I will tell a story as I paint with him.

For painting boards so far we have used large 12x12 wooden clip boards that I coated with beeswax polish.  I bought paint brushes and paper at a local craft store and I did order the stockmar paint.  I like it better than the tubes of artists water colors we used previously.  The paints do last a very long time once mixed up in closed jars in the fridge.

Also sometimes we use our water colors to paint on wood cut-outs.  I think this is really ds's favorite kind of painting.

[JudiAU]

From a non-purist perspective, I'd suggest waiting until older. At this age DS will be better working directly with his hands through finger paints or pudding or any other substance with color. Or play dough. Or crayons. (Most people like the block crayons but I like stick stockmar and DS does fine with them.) Or good pencils like lyra with maybe the little snake from Nova. My 22m LOVES to put the pencils in and out.

She has painted with a brush but it is a whole different skill level. Even at almost 4, DS just wants to doodle with the watercolors and yes, I've spent a lot of money on watercolor paper to figure this out. 

You don't need the fancy set although I see the appeal and we have one. A plain plastic cutting board will fine, medium quality watercolor paper in a pad is fine and less pigmented watercolor paints will work. You can run the paper under the faucet and use a washcloth to dab. The stockmar paints are lovely and they last a long time but really, you don't need them. Certainly not now.

Kids go through art supplies fast so I'd rather spend money on some crayons and pencils that will last and 1,000 sheets of paper and stickers.

[vellamo]

I love Stockmar! My youngest child is 20 months now and she loves to paint. Of course she wants to do everything her brother and sister (now 7yo) do, so painting with a brush is a must. We paint wet on wet, but we often use some salt to make effective figures. DD loves salt too, it feels nice in fingers, I think.

[monkeyma]

Thanks!
 

Originally Posted by vellamo 

I love Stockmar! My youngest child is 20 months now and she loves to paint. Of course she wants to do everything her brother and sister (now 7yo) do, so painting with a brush is a must. We paint wet on wet, but we often use some salt to make effective figures. DD loves salt too, it feels nice in fingers, I think.

Where did you get the stuff you started out with?

[vellamo]

Originally Posted by monkeyma 

Thanks!
 

Where did you get the stuff you started out with?

We use any bearable watercolor paper, but I usually don´t have very good ones, because I can´t find good ones. I think I could buy them from the local steiner school, but I haven´t asked yet. I think it´s pretty funny that Finland is the land of woods, and we basically live in the shadow of paper mills, but we still don´t have good paper for art! But the salt is plain sea salt (I´m not sure about the term, but I mean the rough one).
 

[tbone_kneegrabber]

While I am intrigued by the good quality paints, I can't bring myself to go there (especially because ds wants to do massive numbers of paints/crafts and really wants to do them *his* way).  We have used Colorations liquid water colors from discount school supplies.  I really like them and so does ds.  He has them at his co-op preschool and the teachers love them too. 

[JudiAU]

Our preschool uses the same type and I have to say the colors are really vivid. Been considering ordering them myself.

[ldsmom06]

Call palumba and ask if your lo is too young for the kit.  She is really nice and will let you know if it's age appropriate and if not she will give you suggestions.   I am planning on getting it for my almost 5 and almost 4 yr old's and I know my 20 m old will want to play with it too so I thought I would let her. 

I was going to buy another set of stockmar crayons since we have misplaced ours but I didn't and my kids ruined their table from coloring on it with reg crayons.  The stockmar ones will come off with wool roving (a trick I learned from Judy @ palumba).