Art is something my family loves doing to relax when we get the chance. Since we are still spending a lot of time at home, we have done a lot of different art projects. I keep some art kits on hand that pick up on sale at Michael’s or Target for rainy day fun. However, we have also found some great websites I would love to share with all of you so you can do family art at home too.
Art For Kids Hub
https://www.artforkidshub.com/ is one of my favorite websites. It has free drawing, painting, and origami videos to watch. They are easy to follow, tend to be fairly short, and fun for the whole family. I like the short ones – when they get too long my kids get frustrated. The website has lots of different subject matter to choose from, which is nice when you have two different age kids. We like to search the site and choose a video to do together. It makes for a lot of giggles when we all try it at the same time. We have mostly done the drawing videos so far. My favorite was the flame mellow in hot chocolate and Baby Yoda. My son’s teacher uses this website as part of virtual recess with the kids – for kids who want to draw together with her. It is his favorite part of the day.
P’zazz Art Studio
https://www.pzazzonline.com/blog is another website we have found to be fun to explore for art ideas. This has simple and fun designs that are whimsical and easy to follow. She also shows you how to use washable markers and a paint brush to make the markers turn to watercolor paint. It is so fun to watch marker lines turn to paint. She adds new drawings from time to time which is nice. She has a great Facebook page and even has some paid subscription options if you want more content. We stick to free for now.
Let’s Make Art
https://www.letsmakeart.com/ is where I spend almost all my free time right now. I started learning watercolor thanks to needing something new to keep me busy now that I am always home with two kids doing all year virtual school. I found this website and fell in love. I started with cheap watercolor paper and a kid set of paints we already had. I love that this site allows anyone to watch the tutorial videos and download the outlines for free. You do need to sign up for a free account to download the outlines, but you will not be charged for them. They offer kits and boxes for purchase as well. I have done three of the month’s boxes and love them. She offers videos, kits for kids, journaling. I have done a few of the kid’s activities with my kids and they enjoyed them. So yes, there are options to purchase items, but they are not necessary to enjoy this site, watch the tutorials, and download the free resources. I have learned a lot from this awesome site.
Like I said, my kids and I love to do art together. Whenever we get some free time, we choose a video, a subject, or just go crazy with whatever ideas we have floating in our heads. I always keep art supplies easily accessible for the kids. Markers, colored pencils, crayons, paints, and all types of paper (from watercolor to copy paper). We have added some neon and sparkly crayons for fun. We also recently took the suggestion from the Art Hub artist and got a set of alcohol-based markers which blend so pretty on paper. It has really elevated my son’s drawings. I also highly recommend some type of permanent black marker to outline drawings before coloring them. It just adds a nice finish to them. My biggest suggestion however is, to have fun and just enjoy the process of creating. We draw together and just laugh at how silly it can be sometimes. At the end of the day, family time together is more important than perfect drawings.
