Playing with paint

All children love to paint and draw, but during this year you may find it difficult to interpret exactly what's been drawn. Make sure that you prepare both the painting area and the toddler by covering the table and floor with a waterproof covering or newspaper and your child with an overall.

Two paint techniques that your child might enjoy trying out are block painting and butterfly painting. In block painting you have to provide the equivalent of a rubber stamp. This can be a small sponge, a ball of cotton wool, a cork, half an apple or a potato - anything, really, which your child can hold easily and use in a stamping movement. Make up the stamp pad by sprinkling two tablespoons of powder paint on some moistened squares of kitchen paper that you've put in a flat dish. Gently use the back of a spoon to mix the paint into the paper.

In the second technique blobs of coloured paint are dropped on to a piece of thick paper. This is then folded so that the two sides mirror each other. If your child has learnt how to blow through a straw she can blow the paint into shapes before you fold the paper.

Only keep paintings that you and your child both agree are worth keeping. Display them with magnets on refrigerator doors or, if you find a place where your child's fingerprints always seem to mark the walls, such as down the side of the staircase, cover these with your child's drawings. Your toddler's pictures can make ideal cards to send to relatives or to say “thank you” for presents; they're also easy to make into calendars, which make lovely little presents for grandparents.

Paint tips

• Buy powder paints and mix the quantity that you need; only buy blue, red, yellow and white.

• Keep paint in small plastic jars, preferably in the non-spill variety that have a hole in the top for the paint brush.

• Plastic egg cartons make a difficult-to-spill artist's palette for your child.

• To thicken up powder paint without using extra powder add some liquid starch.

• Children love making their own paint so make up a little liquid starch in a small container and provide some bottles of food colouring. They can add this until they have the colour that they require.

• Cleaning up is easier if you add a little bit of detergent to fingerpaints.

• You can make a paint that will stick to a shiny surface such as glass or aluminium foil by mixing a few drops of food colouring, and an egg yolk with powdered detergent.

• If you buy your child felt tip pens or crayons, make sure they're the fat, chunky ones because they're easier to hold.

• Take a fairly large block of synthetic foam rubber or polythene foam and cut different-sized holes in it. Stand up all your child's bottles, brushes and jars in it. That way they won't fall over.

• A cutlery tray makes a very good store for bottles, jars and paint brushes.

• Put drawing paper on a kitchen paper dispenser and attach it to the wall in your creative corner.

• Keep your old newspapers for floor covering, or use a large plastic table cloth.

What paper to use for painting?

Inexpensive makes of paper, wallpaper, shelf paper, old envelopes or brown paper bags, even old newspaper, can be painted on. Alternatively, buy a roll of lining paper and cut off what your child needs. Make a reusable colouring board by covering a piece of cardboard with clear, stick-on paper. In this way paintings can be washed off with a damp cloth or kitchen paper (experiment with paints to see which one sticks on the surface best).

What paint brushes to use?

When your child begins to paint, use thick brushes so that she sees immediate, bold results. Provide pastry brushes, cotton wool balls, orange sticks and pipe cleaners for variety. Let her use her fingers or her feet from time to time. Make an alternative brush from an old roll-on deodorant bottle: lever out the ball from the neck of the bottle with a spoon, fill with paint and replace the ball.

Preserving paint drawings

You can preserve a crayon drawing by ironing it on to a piece of cloth. Lay it face upwards on the ironing board, cover it with a piece of light coloured cloth and then iron it firmly at a low-to-medium temperature. The drawing will transfer to the cloth. Make sure you let it cool before you move it from the ironing board. Another tip is to spray drawings with fixative, or hair spray if you use it. This will keep the colours from being rubbed off. Alternatively, there is a “magic” solution that is estimated to keep a drawing for 200 years! Dissolve a tablet of milk of magnesia in 500ml (2 pints) of soda water and let it sit overnight. The following day soak a paper drawing in the solution for an hour; remove from solution and leave until it is completely dry.

Dr Miriam Stoppard

New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard

Posted 03.11.2010

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