My Essential Art Supplies

Alright I’ve split this into essentials and desirables because we all know the B word, Budget!

Essential Art Supplies Shopping List- I can’t live without these:

Pencils- but I don’t buy your standard HB, I like a 2B at least- it’s softer, darker and glides. If I’m going to do blending and shading I go straight for 6B. So 2B and 6B are my essential grey leads.

Erasers- are they really essential? Kids will still ask for them so I keep them in a box with little compartments and only let them out on some occassions and they are closely monitored that they come back and don’t take flight across the room.

Black sharpies- if you can’t afford coloured sharpies just get black ones. These are amazing for drawing with, outlining and they really make artworks pop. Plus they’ll draw on any surface. Even kids so watch out. My golden rule is lids face up- so we can check they’re all on at the end of class. Hot tip: keep a spare lids box for ones that go missing.

Watercolour palettes or Tempura paint cakes. Just add water and voila a low mess, quick drying painting activity. Kids go zen when they watercolour, put on some relaxing music and let them enjoy the creative play.

Permanent black fineliner pens- you’ll see on my supply page I love the Everzart permanent pens from Zart Art. I find the felt tip fineliners get destroyed really quickly and sharpies can bleed when watercoloured over, but these don’t and you get a finer line too. Use them for everything.

Some sort of clay- whether it be real clay if you are lukcy enough to have a kiln, air dry clay, paper clay, plasticine or playdough. The kids love modelling stuff- it ticks off the big 3D Art and Form element of art and it is really therapeutic. Oh my the kids love it!

Recycled Cardboard- collect food packaging cardboard- from cereal and cracker packs- it’s thin enough for the kids to cut and can be used for construction, stencils and stores flat in a tub.

Twistable crayons- great for coliuring in bigger areas, rainbows, texture rubbings and you don’t have to sharpen them like pencils.

Acrylic paint in Red, Yellow, Blue and white for colour mixing and creating tones. I am investigating ordering Magenta, Cyan and Yellow to see if this gives me a better purple as green and orange are easy to mix, the purple can look mucky sometimes.

Right and Left handed scissors. Okay so game changer, Scotch makes scissors that are both handed! I only buy these now, as some kids swap hands- they have no idea if they’re left or right handed, they often seem to grab the wrong pair regardless so a set of these mulitpurpose scissors is just inclusive of both hands!

White paper in A4 and A3 in 130gsm or higher. This will hold most paint and materials in the primary art room. I always order some black paper too for silhouettes, chalk, pastels and collage’. Coloured paper is optional- you can always create your own.

Glue sticks- get a good brand and teach the kids to look after them.

Masking Tape- for construction and stencils.

Size 8 paintbrushes for detail and some chunky ones for the little ones painting backgrounds, go the short handle option for little hands

Washable markers- great for drawing with but also for printing from plastic or foil using a spray bottle

Desirable Art Supplies Shopping List- things I love using:

Paper magic clay. Okay I know it’s not cheap stuff but it is magic! It is coloured so ooh the kids love it. It’s light, easy, air dries, can be added to other sculptures, drawn on, mixed to make new colours, marbled and you can stretch it by making small things and rolling it out and wrapping it around armitures of paper, and masking tape, tin foil or cardboard. I love it!

Watercolour pencils- these are a luxury but they are super great for older kids getting into colour blending.

Paint dabbers- super fun for the little ones when you want to contain the mess.

Paint Sticks or Paint Sticks- I do love these but you do have to watch them as they can mush them and use them up quickly. I pull them out for specific lessons.

Big eyed needles and wool. Sewing can be very teacher dependent at first but when they start helping each other it’s a beautiful thing and a great sustainable skill to learn. Big eyed needles will help your sanity and make student more independent. You can sew into paper plates, weave on cardboard and loose weave fabric, you don’t need anything fancy.

Glaze- under glazes and clear glaze for clay. If you are lucky enough to have a kiln some brightly coloured glazes will bring joy to your art teaching game. Colours can be mixed so if you get a good set of base colours you can mix them to get colours to suit your projects and the kids desires.

Gelliplates and brayer (roller)- love a monoprint, layered print and magazine transfer. I’ve only had these a few months as a class set- but loving them so far.

Foam printing blocks- these styrofoam blocks are kid of like lino printing but you can draw into them to make an impression instead of needing a cutting lino tool which makes it much safer for the little ones.

Oil pastels- I do love them and they can look great but they create a mess and smudge onto other things, so not an essential in my art room.

Stay tuned I’ll be adding more to this list… so sign up for more