This is part of an old post moved here.
Primary colors; secondary colors; warm, cool, and neutral colors...there's lots to learn! An early color mixing experience can be done with just plain tubs of water by adding drops of food dye or paints.
Move on to saved styrofoam trays, pie pans or old plastic ice cube tray for further paint mixing experiences. Find out the difference between a tint, tone, and a shade of a color.
USING A VARIETY OF MEDIA- Keep a suppy of crayons, colored pencils (and a sharpener), colored marking pens, watercolors, tempera, acrylics, chalk, pastels... Each medium has specific qualities to keep in mind for a particular project. Colored pencils, for example, have rich colors with sharper points than crayons for finer detail. They also can be blended.
Also a nice variety of papers. Very glossy paper is best for finger painting and watercolor paper enhances water coloring. And every child should get a chance to paint on a piece of canvas stretched onto a frame... Can even paint over it and reuse many times.
CRAYON TECHNIQUES
These got moved to their own separate post. Click on the link above for quick transport.
PAINTING TECHNIQUES AND IDEAS Here's a few. Again, check the Internet for details:
Finger painting- Even adults make this a primary form of expression.
Sponge painting- Can cut sponges into various shapes or sponge paint to create texture
Sparkly paint-Mix salt with tempera paint for a sparkly effect.
Shiny paint- Mix school glue with washable paint and experiment with. Makes non permanent window and jar paint that can also be peeled off like a sticker.
Wet chalk -Dip chalk in water and draw upon dark construction paper. Or decorate the concrete sidewalk or porch outside.
Pointillism- Use Q-tips to make colorful dots to fill in a picture. Also great for making grapes, bees, centipede, ladybug, butterfly, bubbles...
Splatter painting- Shake brush loaded with paint onto paper. This is a quick and easy way to change a large sheet of paper into wrapping paper.
Small is big- Paint small things close up. In other words jumbo-size a single object such as a strawberry, daisy or lady bug to fill a whole page.
String painting- dipping string into paint and pulling across a page is one way. Holding it taunt and snappy it is another.
SPRAY PAINTING
A Pencil Holder can be made from a tin can with seeds glued on and spray painted.
Hot Glue Relief- Vishnu’s chakra or lotus can be drawn onto a large piece of cardboard with a caulk gun or hot glue gun, then spray painted in gold or silver after drying. Makes a great altar backdrop
PAINTING FROM AN EASEL
This is different than laying the canvas or a page down flat- it's a whole new adventure!
STENCILS
Draw and cut out stencils from thin cardboard to sponge paint or spray paint with. Very helpful technique, along with stamping, for making border designs or patterns.
SIDEWALK ART-
Girls especially love decorating this way for their future home entrance ways. Use auspicious designs from Indian rice flour paintings.
BATIK
Batik is more involved. It requires hot wax and melted crayons for color. It is tricky to keep the wax hot while painting the colors onto fabric. Hot plates are useful. Collect cans to keep the various colored wax in.
After painting. Crumble and dip into a dye bath to desired color.
When dry, iron the wax out of the fabric onto several pages of old newspapers.
Can make a book cover, sewing machine cover, Krsna conscious T shirt, pillow case, wind sock, altar back drop or wall hanging.
COLORING BOOKS
Coloring books are fun for practicing basic coloring and techniques.
A tip for reluctant colorers - Give them high quality colored pencils, pastels, crayons, and markers..
HOMEMADE GLITTERS-
Try grated crayon; grated chalk; tiny pieces of cut aluminum foil (which may be painted for different colors); painted and crumpled, dried leaves; colored sand; colored flour or salt(dry tempera mixed in)...