Favorites to Share
There are many generous people who are willing to share of their talents and resources to help kids have fun things to do at home. Here are a few you might enjoy.
Brian Kesinger
A Disney artist who has his own line of art and characters. He's fun to follow on Instagram @briankesinger. DILWORTH DRAGONS will love his FREE 42-page "Penned Dragons" coloring book!
https://www.briankesinger.com/downloads/penned-dragons-digital-coloring-book
Crayola
This website is bursting with dozens of free coloring pages. From your favorite Disney and Star Wars characters to adult zendoodle style. Check it out!
Just Color
Another fun site with hundreds of coloring pages that include everything from mazes and color-by-number to classic artworks such as those done by DaVinci and VanGogh.
Art for Kids Hub
The video tutorials for this are fun, with one artist teaching a student how to draw different characters and lots of holiday options. Check out the tabs for painting, sculpting, and other crafts as well.
Tip: scroll down to access the video for each tutorial to avoid a 'conversion download.'
Hello Kids
This site has drawing tutorials, coloring pages, online games, and other educational activities. For exercises in learning to create your favorite characters, click on the "drawing for kids" tab in the header.
50+ Quick and Easy Crafts
Much like the projects I am sharing, these are some other fun arts-and-crafts type activities that use materials that you likely already have at home. Have fun!
https://www.happinessishomemade.net/quick-easy-kids-crafts-anyone-can-make/
Art Supplies
It is not expected that you would need to purchase anything specific to do any of the activities that I am creating for our online lessons. That said, perhaps you or your child is interested in using supplies that will help enhance their success. I'll list a few of my favorites here, including what I use with our Midvale students in class. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Paper
For most activities, simple type/printer paper will do. You can even use scratch paper or whatever you have on hand if regular paper is in short supply. My goal is to make art easy, accessible, and affordable for everyone.
To do painting activities, however, you will find the product and process more successful if the quality of paper is not a hindrance to the work. Paper is categorized by weight. For example, a general rule of thumb is that paper manufacturers will weigh 500 sheets of 11 x 17" paper and that will be its class. The thicker the paper, the greater the weight. You usually won't be buying that many pounds when packaged in the store, it's just to give you an idea of how dense your paper quality is.
Copy paper averages around 20-30 lb.
Standard cardstock averages 65 lb. (use a weight at least this high for painting)
Specialty watercolor paper, used by professionals, ranges from 150-300 lb.
When we do watercolor in school, my favorite paper that I have found that gives similar results to a student-grade watercolor paper is a 90 lb cardstock. The Sax Sulphite brand costs $33/500 sheets (averaging 6.5 cents/sheet). The paper measures 9x12, so it's a little bigger than average and makes a great art paper. Click HERE to view the 90 lb. paper.
Sax Sulphite 70 lb paper is also a good choice. The paper is a bit thinner, but still better than average cardstock and made for drawing and painting. It averages $18/500 sheets (3.5 cents/sheet) on Amazon. Click HERE if you are interested in purchasing the 70 lb. paper, which is their most affordable option and their lowest grade I would recommend for watercolor.
Disclaimer: I do not get any financial recourse for these recommendations. I've just tried a lot of different brands and find these equal in price and better in quality than any other brand and am passing on my experience to you.
Comparative sizes of 500 sheets of 90 lb drawing paper to 500 sheets of 20 lb copy paper.