Tux Paint is a free paint software for kids through which kids can learn painting with fun. Use age-appropriate products/paints: Liquid watercolors dispensed in a baby food jar with a single brush in each color, tempera cakes, liquid tempera squeezed into plastic tubs with single paint brushes in each container, 76 lb sulphite/smooth construction paper, and no. Purdy 144153320 XL Series. Why we like it: The Purdy XL series is the best set of paint brushes in.

• Which Are The Best Paint Brushes
• Small Paint Brushes For Kids

Are you looking for ways to add some excitement to your art center? Why not make your own paint brush. Experimenting with different materials and methods for making paintbrushes is a great STEAM activity for young kids.

Here are some ideas for DIY paintbrushes to get you started.

Jumbo Paint Brushes – It’s important to have a good set of paintbrushes that are easy for little hands to hold. For toddlers you’ll want ones that have a larger tip so that they’re easier to grasp. Popsicle Sticks – These can be used for collages or just about any other type of kids craft. Considered the best-quality, lowest-cost brush on the market, Fit for Hobby & School Student Brushes are manufactured in Germany to offer better performance than traditional natural hair brushes. They're ideal for use with all types of paint.

Make Paint Brushes from Nature

The variety of DIY paintbrushes that you can make from natural materials for your preschool art activities is endless. Let your kids help you come up with some ideas.

Sticks, Straw, herbs or Grass

Bundle some natural materials together with a rubber band or tape and dip them into the paint.

Tree Branches

Evergreen trees are an excellent choice for paint brushes, but you experiment with other tree branches. I attached this evergreen sprig to a small dowel to protect our fingers from the pokey branches.

Flowers

A single flower or a bundle of them will create some exciting designs

Feathers

I recommend that you use feathers from a craft store instead of feathers that you find in the yard. You can purchase feathers that have a more natural appearance, but the brightly colored ones are fun to use as well. Painting with feathers is one of my favorite techniques.

Make Paint Brushes from Craft Supplies

You can stick a variety of things to a small dowel rod or to a pencil to create an interesting paintbrush. Good masking tape or thin duct tape works well to attach the materials.

Straws

Bendy straws work the best for making paint brushes. Cut them off and attach them to a dowel. Kids can bend them in all different directions before they start painting.

Yarn

Experiment with different lengths of yarn, different quantities of strands, and yarn of different varieties. Long pieces of yarn attached to a stick created some of my favorite effects with the paint.

Ribbon & Bubble Wrap

There are soooo many different varieties of ribbons out there. Try out some thin ribbon, mesh ribbon, curling ribbon, wired ribbon, wide, and thin ribbon.

Here, we used the plastic lacing ribbon that used for beaded necklaces. Plus, we tried out some bubble wrap too.

Strips of Fabric or Craft Foam

You can experiment with strips of fleece, denim, cotton, tulle, felt, etc. Craft foam is a little bit more resistant than fabric or ribbon, but it creates some nice effects.

Pipe Cleaners

Here is another fun and flexible material that you can use. Experiment with the length of the pipe cleaners and with how you bend them (swirls vs zigzags etc.)

Wire & Plastic Tablecloths

Like pipe cleaners, you may be able to bend wire for different effects. How do the strokes from a wire paintbrush look different than the strokes from a pipe cleaner paintbrush?

Try out some plastic from your recycling bin or cut strips from a plastic table cloth.

Silk Flowers

Much like real flowers, you can make paintbrushes with silk flowers as well.

Rubber Bands

Of all of the homemade paintbrushes that we tried, my favorite is the rubberband paintbrush. So Much Fun!

Make Paint Brushes with Clothespin Clips

You can also use a clothespin clip to make paintbrushes. The best thing about this type of brush is that it is also a great fine motor activity.

Kids can attach a clothespin clip to a small sponge and use that as a paintbrush.

Or you can provide a variety of materials so that kids can experiment with all of them.

What Kind of Paint Brush Are You Going to Make?

I hope that I gave you a little bit of creative inspiration and encouraged you to try out some fun homemade paint brushes with your kids. Let me know which type is your favorite.

Creative Resource from the Store

If you like doing creative activities with your kids, you will also like my Maker Mat Resources in the store. Click on the images below to check them out.

Video All Rights © 2021 Nature of Art®, Music by Karen O and the kids – All is love

Making Brushstrokes, 7 tips to teach kids | Painting

By Spramani Elaun

In this blog post I want to share the first painting lesson I give my students on how to make controlled brushstrokes.

These lessons are simple to teach and playful, kids love them!

I can usually get kids up and painting with these 7 steps.

Included in this blog is my materials list and set-up below.

I usually first introduce these 7 steps, then have kids work on the exercises independently.

This lesson is great for introductory to painting.

You can prepare kids for any painting project by first doing these quick exercises.

This lesson is best for students 5 – 12 years of age and up.

Younger children that can sit for up to 20 minutes, can be taught some of these lessons.

Remember this should be fun and playful for the student.

Materials & Supplies you will need:

Large paper

Paintbrush

Paint Buy

Small Jar

Napkins

Paper: large 11 x 17 or larger, cream to white, be sure its light-colored so brushstrokes can be seen clearly.

Paintbrush: any round tip paintbrush will work, see picture example.

Paint: tempera, Chinese Ink, acrylic, watercolor, or poster paint can all work.

Prepare Thin Paint: create a thin wash of paint. Water down like the consistency of creamier milk, but with only water. You want paint to be very flow feeling and runny. If it drips too much off the paintbrush then it’s too thin, thicken back up with more paint.

Color: Dark colors – black is best, but dark blue, green, or brown will work.

Small jar for paint: something small like a baby food jar will work great. This is where you will place paint inside. After kids have practice then you can move them to a deep well artist palette. It’s best to work out of jars for beginners until they understand how to move around with paint on a bush.

Napkins: for wiping paintbrush off, or resting paintbrush on.

Step-by-step Lessons

Step 1.

Correct brushstrokes & Incorrect brushstrokes

Show kids how to make a controlled brushstroke sweeping motion, not dragging or scrubbing. Demonstrate this motion a couple of times without paint on the paintbrush. Also demonstrate an incorrect brushstroke without paint. Pretend to make the motions on paper before getting started. In my video I show you how to do it with the paint on the paintbrush, but I recommend first have kids practice sweeping motion without paint the very first time.

Step 2.

Explain the meaning of loading a paintbrush.

Introduce the word loading. Loading a paintbrush is the action of filling the bristles with paint. The paintbrush is loaded and ready to make a brushstrokes.

Step 3.

Which Are The Best Paint Brushes

Load the paintbrush

Load the paintbrush in front of the child. You can all do it together. Dip the paintbrush into the jar of paint to load the paintbrush.

Step 4.

Make brushstrokes

Load paintbrush with paint. Make a couple of sweeping medium length brushstrokes until the paint runs dry.

Step. 5.

Wide brushstrokes

Small Paint Brushes For Kids

Reload paintbrush. Make sweeping brushstroke marks by pressing a little firmly to show how this makes wide brushstrokes. Have kids practice this step a couple of times.

Step 6.

Thin brushstrokes

Reload paintbrush. Make seeping brushstrokes with the tip of the paintbrush by trying not to press too hard. Only use the tip by applying one-third pressure onto the surface. brushstrokes should appear thinner than step 5. Have kids practice making many thin brushstrokes.

Step 7.

Explain how the painter controls brushstrokes by pressure, but never scrapping or scrubbing the paintbrush on the surface. Thin marks are made by painting with the tip and lighter pressure, wider brushstrokes are made with or of the bristles, and more pressure. Brushstrokes are smooth controlled sweeping motions by the artist.

Brushstrokes exercises

Short

Medium

Thin

Wide & Thin

Dashes

spirals

Long

Waves

Dots

Squares

Circles

Triangles

Hearts

Stars

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