Materials and Equipment Recommendations (Canvas Club)

When your children come along to our monthly canvas club they often leave so inspired that they want to carry on painting at home! We love hearing about how they have been busy with their art kits and want to re-create some of the things they have learnt in their classes.   Trying to re-create a piece with different colours or paints can be a little confusing  for some of the children so one of our most commonly asked questions are about the materials and colours we use in the classes.

So I have compiled a list to help with that.   These are the items we recommend to parents, and are the exact paints and brushes we use in our classes.  

(we are not sponsored by any brands, but we have purchased pretty much every brand and colour on the market and base these recommendations on our own experience, weighing up quality and value)

Acrylic Paints :  

Essential Colours: Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Phthalo Blue, Titanium White, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Sap Green, Black

We Recommend: System3 Starter Set

You will also need a large white - as they will get through this quickly.

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Additional colours to collect: Magenta, Raw Sienna, Phthalo Green, Phthalo Torquoise, Process Cyan, Process Yellow, Coeruleum Blue Hue

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Paint Brush Set:

We Recommend: Exerz Acrylic Paint Brushes, I have bought these sets multiple times and they are the exact brushes we use in our classes. They last a long time if washed properly and left to dry standing in a jar with the hairs up (in the desired shape.)

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Surfaces:

The children can paint their picture on a variety of surfaces. We use stretched canvas in our Canvas Club as it's super special although canvas panels have a similar feel to paint, they are also priced a bit more affordably and are easier to store at home.

Acrylic paper is also an option - I personally don't use this as much but it's great to practise on and try out colours (some people love to paint on it too) They can also try out colours on normal cartridge paper or even printer paper but I wouldn't attempt a lovely painting on this if you can help it as this paper absorbs the moisture in the paint and it makes it really hard to blend colours or use wet-on-wet techniques.

Stretched Canvas: We Recommend: Exerz 24x30cm stretched canvas pack

We also recommend the 9" Mixed Media Canvas from The Range or Wilkos

Canvas Panel: We Recommend: Exerz 24x30cm Canvas Panel

Acrylic Paper: We Recommend: Daler-Rowney A4 Paper

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Paint Pens:

Because it takes a lot of practise to create tiny marks with a paint brush we often bring out paint pens to add the final details into the eyes. We use black and every so often we might use a white. Careful when you buy them as they come in two types of nibs - we use the 'bullet tip'.

We Recommend: Posca 3mm Black & White

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Easel:

There are lots of different types of easels available, but we prefer the upright table top easels over the Box Easel that you typically find at The Works or The Range. We find they are sturdier and hold much larger sizes of canvas. (Check your child likes using an easel first as we find about a third of students prefer not to use them, as their paintings get bigger, they will naturally make more use of an easel)

We Recommend Deller-Rowney Wooden Table-top Easel,

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I hope this helps and if you would like any other blog posts on how to help your children at home with their artwork please reach out! Don't forget we are active on Facebook and Instagram and will always love to share and celebrate your children's creations on our channels if you tag us in your posts @merakiartschool .

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Lots of love

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