Art materials for kids - Let their creativity escape

Partnering painting, drawing and colouring with kids encourages creative play and developmental milestones in young children. Place a few basic art materials in their hands  - an art set and a blank piece of paper or a canvas - and you are giving them wings to explore their imaginations in a colourful and self-expressive way. Give them paint and they will create; it’s as simple as that. Pablo Picasso agrees: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Giving kids access to art materials and supplies is not about forcing them to colour in the lines - it is all about igniting their inner artist and letting them colour their worlds in a happy and meaningful way. 

“The urge to draw must be quite deep within us because children love to do it.” –David Hockney

Let children graduate from kindergarten art supplies (such as finger paints and poster paints) to experimenting with a variety of mixed media - sketching pencils, oil pastels, watercolour pans and acrylic tubes. 

Let’s explore some of the benefits of art materials for kids:

Opening up a world of incidental learning

Allowing artistic expression to escape from within a child - no matter how messy - enables them to develop emotionally, socially and intellectually. And giving children access to a vast array of craft supplies and art materials will set them on a journey of viewing and interpreting the world around them through a different lens as well as growing their communication skills. 

 “I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.”-Georgia O'Keeffe.

When a young child draws with pencils, colours in a picture or moves a paintbrush and paint across a surface, they are developing their fine motor skills. As kids experiment with the colour wheel and the mixing of colours, they are learning about science. The basics of math are learnt at the easel as children learn about balance and perspective. And as they explain their artwork and its motivation, they are learning to articulate a visual representation with words. 

But most of all, as kids create, they are having fun and art materials become the simplest vehicle to this end. 

Thinking outside the (paint) box

According to the International Child Art Foundation, “research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, discover, innovate, and create intellectual property—key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twenty-first century.”

And with just a few kid-friendly art materials, this can start in your home, at your kitchen table. Allowing kids to be creative is an investment that will produce better thinkers and innovative problem solvers. Open-ended, process-oriented art is an opportunity for kids to make choices, reach conclusions, weigh up decisions and evaluate results.

That is the power of art supplies and being given the freedom for self-expressive creativity. And what could be more ideal for any beginner’s art journey than a mixed media art box for drawing, sketching, experimenting and painting?   

Exploring their environment - 1 sense at a time

Depending on the art materials and the activity, multi-media art and craft activities can stimulate and engage a child’s senses. Whether that is using finger paint, sculpting with clay, drawing from imagination, being inspired by certain sounds and smells to visually copying and interpreting what is seen, the brain is making neural connections. 

“The multi-sensory nature of arts and crafts stimulates brain synapses to fire as children create. Memory and cognition improve when combined with movement, sounds, textures, and other sensory input.” -Ahren Hoffman

Shopping for art materials online at Artistik

An online visit to Artistik is all you need to unleash any child’s artistic creativity. And as little creatives grow into adult artists, we stock everything you may need to indulge your artistic voice. Our passion and mission are to provide affordable and quality art supplies for artists of all ages. 

Visit us today and let your imagination run wild by shopping all our art materials and collections.