Mistakes We Parents Make Introducing Our Kids To Art
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Mistakes We Parents Make Introducing Our Kids To Art
I have wanted to make this video for a long time, but every time I made it, to me, I came across as one of those arrogant parents who try to lecture other parents on how to bring up their own children. I hope I have got it right this time but I want to make it very clear, this is not a blame game or finger pointing exercise, it is simply a showcase of the mistakes Vicky and I made to our kids when it came to art and in particular our eldest daughter Niamh.
I have also completed a written account of our experience and I know some of you prefer to read about issues rather than watch a video. I have included a link below which will take you straight to the written review by clicking on it.
After you have watched the video, if you have any questions about the topic please by all means leave them in the comment section or share your own experience of how you introduced your kids to art. I have always felt the comment section both on my CZcams videos and website is the most important part to the entire Art Gear Guide community. All so often, the best information is discovered in the comment section, once a conversation has begun, loads of other artists contribute and so many vital tips, techniques and personal experiences are shared.
Written Account of this video - bit.ly/4apb0z4
Kids Ages 13 - 17 Years
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II, set of 10 - amzn.to/49m7OTz
Mungyo water soluble oil pastels 12 set - amzn.to/3xrdpdQ
Lyra Aquarelle Crayons 24 Set - amzn.to/3U4laiG
Giotto 36 Set Colored Pencils - amzn.to/3VSkaj1
Faber Castell Classic Red 60 Set - amzn.to/4aKHEeg
Faber Castell Black Edition 36 Set - amzn.to/3JaSw9A
Shuttle Art Dual Tip Markers 88 Set - amzn.to/4aoDuJe
Ohuhu 48 Markers Set - amzn.to/3TQL9ZT
Kids Ages 6 - 12 Years
Crayola 64 set - £7.99 amzn.to/3Ja8wbN - amzn.to/43N7fkg
Faber Castell Jumbo Grip Crayons 12 Set - amzn.to/3vJE9Wy
Giotto Vera Water Soluble Crayons 24 set - amzn.to/3PU870R
Stabilo Trio Thick Colored Pencils 12 Set - amzn.to/49rT99n
Giotto Mega Chunky Colored Pencils 12 Set - amzn.to/3TLPCNq
Bic Kids Washable Felt Pens 24 Set - amzn.to/4cNz4Nr
Crayola Supertip felt pens 24 set - amzn.to/4cNyPlv
Shuttle Art 48 Set Watercolor Pans - amzn.to/4cP4oLK
The Art Gear Guide Social Media Platforms
---------------------------------------------
FACEBOOK PAGE - bit.ly/2FQdNDe
PATREON PAGE - bit.ly/3iLKu87
KO-FI DONATIONS - bit.ly/2SmKe3H
PERSONAL FACEBOOK - bit.ly/2sdjkwY
ART GEAR GUIDE INSTAGRAM - bit.ly/2FZ35gE
ART GEAR GUIDE TWITTER - bit.ly/2FFOyr3
DEVIANT ART - bit.ly/39ZMkOa
AMAZON STORE - amzn.to/2VRp12j
Pay Pal Donations For The Art Gear Guide
---------------------------------------------
DONATIONS - bit.ly/30Rg8sc
I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, your love and support throughout the entirety of my art journey has been suitably overwhelming. I often wonder what I have done to deserve such warmth, love and support.
If you are new to the channel I would like to warmly welcome you, as I was once warmly welcomed and embraced into the arms of the art community. I would also like to assure you that the community which has evolved around The Art Gear Guide, is a community like no other. Should you wish to seek advice from members within the community, with a huge amount of biases I can assure you that you will receive help and advice like no other community on CZcams.
The wonderful artists that have so amazingly supported The Art Gear Guide over the years, consists of the most gracious, knowledgeable, compassionate and generous individuals I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. None of this by the way has anything to do with me, all I have done is to publish reviews, the rest is as a result of the most wonderful people.
Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart, you will never truly know the depths of my gratitude as there are no words in the English language powerful enough to portray such emotions. - Zábava
I was a child of the 60-70's. We were extremely poor. Every December my mother used to go through all of my 4 older siblings school work and pick out any sheets that had a blank spot or a blank back and store them in a box. That was my and my two younger sisters art paper. As well as smoothing out and cutting up paper that the fish and chips we occasionally bought was wrapped in. My art supplies comprised of the leftover school pencils discarded by my older siblings, a packet of cheap 12 Mister Texta markers and... joy of joy... a cheap large metal paint set filled with tiny chips of hard coloured watercolours which were very available for children at the time. I got that set for my main Christmas present one year and it was my pride and joy. And still I fell in love with being arty and had a reputation all through school of being artistic. An arty child will still find a way. If only my child self could see my art studio decked out with all my delicious art supplies. I would love to snatch her up from history and bring her here and watch her play.
I discovered the hard way as well, that those awful cheap, big kit art supplies are not the way to go with kids. I don't share my good stuff with my younger grandkids, but I do keep a supply of good student grade supplies for when they are over. That is what they get as gifts from me as well. I promised the oldest, however (she is 13) that when she graduates and still loves to make art, I will get her a full set of Neo ll's. She is old enough to appreciate good supplies. The first time she used my Neo ll's, she was blown away. It was so funny that when she first saw them, she asked me why I was using Crayolas. LOL. When I showed her their "secret", she was instantly in love!
It wasn't just parents - who couldn't be expected to know about materials- but educational authorities too. I taught kids for years and was provided with the cheapest and most unsuitable materials that I was told was good enough for kids. Painting with paper that dissolved when wet with hog bristle brushes from rock hard blocks was impossible. When I asked for the given hard pencils to be replaced with charcoal I was refused and ended up buying my own supply. I applaud this video even if it raises sad memories for me.
Another excellent point, absolutely amazing. I’m a child of the 70s and I can remember in Primary School having these gorgeous looking colourful crayons, in plastic paint pots, they were chunky and looked like large bullets. But when you used them, man they were terrible.
Like I say my wife has worked with kids for years and every time we are out, she is always looking for bargains in charity shops to buy art supplies or fabrics etc for the kids to play with because they have no funding for such things.
You have mentioned the problem of getting cheap art supplies for kids in past videos so when my 4 year old niece was ready for pencils I thought of your advice and told her parents to get her something nice. They found a full set of Koh-i-noor aquarelle colored pencils on ebay that were barely used and inexpensive. She uses them constantly and draws everyday. My point is you are so correct in saying don't get the absolute cheapest stuff for kids to use. My parents always got me pretty nice art supplies so I was lucky!
The 187 pieces set is expensive because it's useless. If you put away 2 or 3 pounds monthly then you could get your child a decent set at Christmas. Those companies try to impress the customers with the amount of pieces they get - but I believe a smaller set that really works is way cheaper. And who decided to always put a bad brush into a "painter's set", even with sets recommended for use in school 🤔
What I unfortunately sometimes see is parents lamenting not having the money for "expensive art materials" getting a pack of cigarettes or a gossip magazine or something like that. "I would do everything for my kid!" Yeah, obviously 🤨
Thank you for raising this topic, I believe it's very important to make parents aware that they're not getting real value for their money when they buy such art kits. 🥰
I remember using similar sets as a child, which made me scared of using colour for the longest time. There is no point in making your child go through something like that when you can buy affordable art supplies with better quality that they can actually enjoy.
Thank you for the video❤
Harry, you need a ‘gobo’ old photographer term for something to go between the light & the product it will eliminate the glare. I used to make my own using cheap, opaque shower curtains from the dollar store. If you’ve got some cheap timber & a stapler you can make a frame. That opaque curtain will softly diffuse the lights. Cheers,
I remember these sets from 35 years ago. The experience was so bad, I was put off using colour pencils for years.
Thank you for the video. I was made to feel bad when I refused to give our daughters sets like this for Christmas but it was due to my memories of them being so awful.
I agree with you on the more established brands having decent quality sets for a decent price.
As an artist, I have a lot of good quality supplies that I’ve grown out of or have doubles of. I normally keep two boxes for my 4 year old and 2 year old to use.
I just make sure to keep alcohol markers and cadmium based pigments out of their boxes.
They’re more engaged for longer when they use my supplies and I personally enjoy painting with them.
Again, thank you for the wonderful video.
Wow Emily I love your comment and I can’t tell you how much I love to hear of our up and coming young artists being nurtured like little art buds. But the fact that sets such as these put you off art for years is exactly my point, but you expressed a benefit that I never thought of and that is you refuse to give your little ones such sets. So something good came from your negative experience. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us and I hope your little ones continue to love painting and drawing with Mum.
I think every parent, grandparent and favorite auntie has made this mistake at least once. After observing the cwappy quality and frustration, I changed to doing an "art box" for my troop of children back in the day [youngest is 25 now]. Through the year, I picked up this and that and the other thing of quality and stashed it in a box in the closet. By Christmas time, there was at least (2) sets of colored pencils, sets of drawing pencils, boxes of crayola markers, sharpie marker sets, paint tubes / bottles and sets of good, usable brushes with all kinds of "on sale/ clearance" craft kits & supplies from popsicle stix to googly eyes and pom poms, with a big stack of multi colored construction paper, fancy edged scissors and even punches. I went with several bottles of glue instead of one big one + some modge podge and of course, that demon glitter. Paper was always the biggest expense because having enough for six to try and use required pads of paper. But one or two items / payday, or watching for clearance items, it isn't a hard hit on the budget as trying to do it all at once. It became the favorite part of christmas, that yearly art tote, and what would be in there. They all still enjoy creating art And doing crafts because they learned as they went and built on that knowledge. Any professional artist? No. Just a family full of enthusiastic hobbyists which is a peaceful place to be in as life goes up and down and sideways. Your suggestions could be budgeted through the year in the same way and I'm here to say, it works well, even in large families!!
Just want to say thank you , I have a wonderful grandson who is on the autism spectrum, he is an avid creative and spends the majority of his day drawing. I wanted to encourage him to spend some more time drawing on paper alongside the digital art he loves to do. I have shared my pencils with him but understand the importance of him having his own so I researched the Faber Castell black edition but it wasn't until I came upon your review I knew they'd be perfect for him , the importance of giving our children the correct tools for success in art is the same as giving them a pair of wellies to jump in puddles rather than a pair of gutties, anyway i agree 💯 and am so grateful for your review , your perspective and to have found your channel . Thank you
One thing that occurs to me is that the extra cheap sets of the type you mention is that they cover a wide range of media using the cheapest media. I would have thought that it would be better to start kids off with just one or two types of media, perhaps one wet and one dry, but using better quality materials. It might be tempting to throw pencils, crayons, oil pastels, watercolours, etc. at them but it strikes me that at least initially they are less interested in the medium they are using than being able to produce decent images. Of course, if there appears to be a real interest in expanding their artistic work then you might start investing in a more extensive range of media on their behalf. Just my twopen'th.
Great advice, Harry. Schools also need to hear this. At my high school 'art supplies' meant great tubs of cheap acrylic paint, primary colours only, and reams of butcher's paper. We students battled through, but many resorted to whatever else our pocket money or parents could afford. I had a 36 set of Derwent Artist pencils and loved them because I could see the results I wanted.
Yes! In recent conversations with the head of art at my former secondary school, securing budget for appropriate materials was always a challenge for them. And so, lots of our art was often done using inappropriate materials!
I can't remember if I ever had one of those big sets as a kid but I do remember having coloured pencils that could not be sharpened. As soon as they wore down, the lead would break every time I tried to sharpen them. My dad was used to using a knife to sharpen pencils, so he tried that but it didn't work any better. I don't think I was bought any after that but what saved me from hating art was that whenever we visited family and friends, everyone always handed me something to draw on (used envelopes, back of leaflets, old headed paper from back when my grandad was a builder) and anything that made a mark, so graphite pencils, biros and the occasional bingo pen, lol. I only used pen or graphite for years because that was what I trusted to work.
I used to worry when my kids were little if a pencil rolled off the table and hit the hard floor because I just assumed coloured pencils were all really easy to shatter inside. Their pencils never did but they were nice soft cored ones from Faber-Castell.
My middle daughter used to get those big art sets from very well meaning relatives and the pencils barely made a mark, couldn't be sharpened, felt tips dried out almost immediately, etc. It's such a shame because the people who paid for them were thinking she'd get so much use out of them and I didn't want to hurt or embarrass them by telling them they'd wasted their money.
The one set I remember fondly myself was, in retrospect, a school stationary kit. It had what I thought was a fantastic stencil for drawing the Tyne bridge. It was a few years before I knew it was a protractor 😂 my dad definitely knew and just kept quiet while I happily drew my favourite bridge over and over.
Hullo Harry, I have run the gamut of getting supplies for young 8 yrs, to teens to young adults! I must say giving the best you can afford in the medium the person is interested in is most important. Watercolors? 100% cotton pad and good paints not necessarily professional grade but superior student grade paints. The selection of drawing pencils just find a set or range of pencils from 6B or 8B to H, F, 2H you can make a wonderful graphite drawing with these pencils and a good pad of paper. I suggest the Bamboo Mixed media papers are a good choice and affordable too! Alcohol markers are better choice for older kids, and the Ohuhu 48 set can be found for around $30.00, that might be a lot in your home. Just decide what is important to you and the child in question! Communication ASKING what they want and trying to go with their choice is the real key to happiness! I had a niece that wanted to draw/paint horses. I tried to get her to learn basics but it was a true failure!!! I did learn from this and when another young lady asked me to help her draw a horse I went to a coloring book and scanned and printed her a sweet picture of a horse and let her loose to color away! When she was older she asked about drawing and how can she get started? and I was able to introduce her to basic drawing techniques and the basic shapes to start a horse head drawing! I think this was an amazing video and you did an amazing job!
Oooffff, this video triggers some unhappy memories 40-ish years ago of chalky watercolour discs, cheap brushes that would lose hairs and fan out after one use, and markers that were dry in the box. Not to mention pencils that would give a mere hint of colour when scraping it along the paper, and were impossible to sharpen due to disintegrating wood. 😞 I always vowed to give any kid at least student-grade stuff! :-)
Don’t worry mate, I am right with you, but as I mentioned to someone else, a good thing came from your negative experience and that was the fact you haven’t burdened your kid with such supplies. Thank you so much mate for sharing your experience
Oh my god! I remember these! 😂 My parents used to buy me these all the time I only used some of it, the quality was always terrible, but man, Crayola brand art supplies are amazing. That is all I buy for my daughter now, I recommend it to anyone who is looking to get their kids into art.
Totally, Crayola have the kids market cracked and they do indeed provide exactly what I mentioned in the video, products tiny little hands can pick up and once they touch the paper with the crayon, the see instant results with very little to no effort.
But it’s not just their crayons, their pencils are pretty good and now with their Signature range for older kids, they have helped to remove the stigma of crayola only being for kids and allowing teenagers to comfortably use crayola signature without facing ridicule at school. Let’s face it, school is difficult enough for kids. So I think the inclusion of their signature range is amazing.
@@TheArtGearGuidein Italy, where I spent most of my childhood, the main kids’ brand is Giotto, whose products you love. 😊 I grew up using Giotto pencils. PS - Giotto (named after the Italian artist, and pronounced “Jotto”) is an original brand of FILA and is Italian (and almost 100 years old!) - it’s nothing to do with Lyra, which is German and was bought by FILA just some years ago.
PPS - sorry if I keep mentioning this. It’s just that Giotto is such a beloved Italian brand it would be as if I kept saying that Derwent was American 😄
also, so true! I got given Giotto when I was little and at around 10 then in quick succession at birthdays and Christmas my mum bought me the smallest 15 sets of Neocolors, neopastels and supracolour pencils, and my dad bought me a small box of Derwent artists pencils. I used them all the time and did all my artwork with those limited colours, and they lasted so long I still have some of those original pencils/pastels from back then. Value for money and I wouldn’t have become an artist without them!
I used to work in an art supply shop. Around christmas the amount of parents that were looking for these sets were astounding. I had to explain to them how poor quality these were, most of the parents were still annoyed that an art supply shop wouldn’t sell these! 🙄 If you are buying this for like a 3-4 year old, than it’s maybe “okay”? But they wanted these for 10-12 year olds…
Oh my goodness I wish I had of bumped into someone like you when we were buying them. Mind you, having said that, I was just so selfish and dismissive of art back then because it didn’t matter to me that I would have ignored the advice. But I like to think that some parents listened to you back then and some lucky kids at Christmas got a gorgeous set of coloured pencils and crayons that propelled them into a world of art; a world we all know and love so much.
@@TheArtGearGuidei tried to help them buy better quality things, like you talked about in the video, usually they were frustrated about the holiday shopping, but willing to listen :) also in my country these bad quality sets can go for the same price as studio grade stuff!
I have an eight year old granddaughter who is very artistic and very into her art supplies. I've bought her Prismacolor and some decent paper...plus a nice watercolour set...the way i see it she needs good supplies that will work with her, not against her. .those huge sets are pretty much worthless...except sometimes they come in a nice wooden box! 😂 at least that's how it is here in Canada 🇨🇦 great topic Harry!
Edit....i admit I commented before i watched the whole video
Something to also consider if you're not worried much about presentation (like a gift) and you have some idea what to look for is that thrifting or buying used can be very budget friendly, although this is only helpful if you know what's actually reasonable quality and you know where to look IRL or online. This is also dependent on luck since it's much more reliant on what other people don't want and what price they're willing to accept so I wouldn't consider this as the only option (especially online because good quality sets for example are more likely to get marked up; anything that's an amazing supply most people won't want to let go of unless they're trying to make a profit and in this case buying from a big retailer who is getting it wholesale is usually your cheapest option) but I've gotten some genuine high grade art supplies this way and I was always thrilled when that happened.
But if for example you're looking for Crayola they will always have a ton of Crayola products at any thrift store in an area where those are abundant lol. If you take some scrap paper with you then you can try out almost anything you're interested in. You can also get used artist brushes and a ton of erasers. Also anything like pens or pencils that come in giant packs of multiples, people will often donate the extras from those, or if they decided they didn't like something they tried out, they might be kind enough to donate it. For kid school and art supplies this is a great option for year round goodies.
The only thing harder to come by second hand is of course paper but for budget paper options there are plenty of quality kid's pads out there (just pay attention to the reviews) or if you buy paper online from retailers that usually have it on sale you can get decent student/artist quality paper pads for older kids especially, though younger kids would be happy with them too. In general it's always a good idea to look at reviews and take "this was horrible, it's only for kids" with a giant grain of salt because there are a subset of people who confuse "children don't worry about advanced methods" with "children don't care about quality, hand them your garbage" in regards to EVERYTHING because as Harry pointed out, anything they struggle with will potentially turn them off entirely. Children want and deserve quality items, they just have different parameters of concern. They like big, bold colors among agreeable palette choices, they like excitement, and they like beauty. Things that you enjoy will also be enjoyable for them but most kids just don't care as much about subtlety or realism (when a kid does it's very dependent on how that is implemented.) But of course people are all different, this also applies to kids. They just don't have the experience to know if a product is bad to begin with, especially the younger they are, they might not even have the idea that something could be bad in and of itself until parents explain quality to them, and as Harry said they just don't have the patience or incentive to keep tackling something frustrating. It adds a massive learning curve.
However, I would think if you bought a big set from Crayola or Faber-Castell, if you're dead-set on buying one of those as a Christmas gift, those companies offset the cost of making a giant set by packaging what they already make and sell individually so in this case you'd pay more than the super budget sets but it would still be much better quality per item. Not amazing quality for every type of medium but for example you know you're getting their crayons and their pencils in those sets and you know those are going to at least be child friendly. There is still the problem of whether they have good brushes or paper (because I have no idea, odds are higher it's decent); I'm just saying if you must, then it probably is better to go name-brand where as with the super budget sets those are produced by random factories for the cheapest product pennies can buy and whatever doesn't sell probably sits on their warehouse shelves for a year before it goes back into rotation which for the paint and markers alone could make it so-so at best, it'd certainly explain why the markers dry up so quickly. These days they might also sell them year round online or maybe they get sent to liquidation outlets, I don't really know.
We need to make less cheap crap created to milk every penny out of budget-conscious consumers which is prepared to go into landfills and that applies to everything sold in the market IMHO. The cheapest sets are just future trash without any enjoyment to justify their existence.
I have an eight year old granddaughter who is very artistic and very into her art supplies. I've bought her Prismacolor and some decent paper...plus a nice watercolour set...the way i see it she needs good supplies that will work with her, not against her. .those huge sets are pretty much worthless...except sometimes they come in a nice wooden box! 😂 at least that's how it is here in Canada 🇨🇦 great video Harry!
Great to hear your opinion and thank you for your advice Harry - totally agree 👍 although I'd be tempted to use these art supplies myself 😅
Agree with you on that one and will keep your recommendations in mind for the time my niblings reach the appropriate age :)
This was great video. I love drawing and painting ever since I was a child. Now at my 40s I told my sister how frustrating it was in school specifically the watercolors and the brushes. I learned to love watercolors now.
My mother must’ve been so in for sight cause she bought a Caran D’Ache basic set (watercolour blocks and pencils) with only the five basic colours (and some other useful things to go with the paints) and a Marabou watercolour set for me, only because I draw and painted so much every day. That, I think, made me so much more confident in my painting. ❤ I do think, though, that she bought basic watercolour paper from the art store, but that was okey for me since I painted so much. (I would have ruined her with more expensive paper so… * lol * ) I may also point out that artist products are very expensive here in Sweden so I understand why people buy this sh*t rather than quality products. If I can make only one recommendation it would be buy fewer products and if they like it they have a base set to build from…
Good sound advice. I have an issue with making choices so a set like this would be just too overwhelming for me, even now.
I fully agree with you! I let my 5 year old even use my supplies as far as i know that they are non toxic and in accordance with EN71. Some paints contain heavy metals for example cadmium yellow. I remember my school days when i had to use 90 gsm paper for watercolors. Good quality paper i so important. We have allways Pulp based watercolour paper in the house just for the children.
I'm 24 and I remember having one of these sets as a kid and not using it either - some decent quality coloured pencils for kids were my preferred art supply at that moment - Bambino, a Polish brand, a set of 12 jumbo wooden coloured pencils would run you 20 zł here, which would be about £4, I remember them fondly.
these days though I noticed my artist friends are letting their kids just use their supplies, so I've seen a 2,5 year-old using Promarkers and Koh-I-Noor coloured pencils :D
It reminds me of my own childhood experience. I wanted oil pastel but I didn't know "oil pastel" so I said I want crayon like what I saw on TV tutorial. My parent bought me wax crayon which I didn't really like. It took years to eventually got the first oil pastel in cars box. In my 20's I bought the oil pastel in hard plastic case I always wanted.
Now I'm mostly do watercolour. But I also have sets of decent oil pastels and colored pencils for variation. And when I have to buy art supplies for my elder son (this year he'll be 7), it becomes a sensitive moment for me. I want to tell him he's lucky to have artist mother 😊 He doesn't have to be artist in the future. But it just feels right to really count the value of the things, not only the price. Art supposed to be fun, and it rarely achieved with the cheapest one.
I hated those sets growing up so much I vowed that my children would never have them lol. We did buy a wooden box set once but I replaced the supplies with open stock stuff and donated the other stuff to a day care. Those sets are prob fine for kids while they are still in the scribbling stage with monitoring. Mine still has the wooden box set with the polychromos, oil pastels were long used up, replaced with neocolor, the watercolor circles I refilled with cotman tubes etc. From my own stash. Got her a few of those student grade sketchbooks and sometimes old photo paper. Doesn't have to be professional grade. Art is her happy place now. You made some great suggestions on alternative supplies 😂. My art supplies go missing all the time. But I always know where to find them. 😅
Pet hate, those awful cheap brushes and pencils with no pigment in them! Very frustrating for children I think. My grand-daughter is 8 now and right from when she was about 2 she has used all my good art supplies along with good quality card or watercolour paper for paints. Have some things got messed up? Sure, but they can be replaced. Some of my Karin deco brush pens came to a sad end with splayed brushes but that was a learning opportunity and she quickly learned how to use them properly. The ONLY art supplies she does not use are alcohol markers simply because I will end up with multi-coloured sofas, tables or floors when they come through the card!! I use my art supplies for card making, home decor and colouring so she can also use a die cutting machine and foiling machine too. Hopefully it's a little piece of crafting heaven for her 🥰
Before I started getting Derwent, etc, I found that the only good supplies was Crayola and a set of pencils sold by WH Smith in the UK. Everything else I tried was terrible to some degree. I've not tried the Derwent Academy range, but I suspect that they are one of the few cheaper end art supplies that aren't terrible. You can't even rely on branded supplies being good because I bought a set of Steadler coloured pencils and the pigment in them was terrible, even if the coloured leads in them didn't break like all the other pencils I tried. Having used a set like that myself, there is a lot of breakage in the wax crayons and coloured pencils. You can get cheap watercolour brush sets that are better than the plastic ones provided with sets like these so I don't know why they put them in.
I am curious how this would work if you use it on good hot pressed watercolor paper. Sometimes the paper makes a difference, but you are right. Buy better supplies for your children so they don't get discouraged
Even just having a regular kid's watercolor pad or mixed media as he suggested and a decent brush from a kid's set of paint brushes (or value set for any age probably) would be better. That brush in this set is only useful for sweeping eraser crumbs IMHO.
My daughter is 15 months old and got a small set of Stabilo 3in1 pens for Easter. She loves them and draws everyday ❤ it is a set of 6 pens and that is enough for such a young child 😉
I’m guilty of falling for the impressive looking sets. They didn’t perform at all. In the USA , Crayola is a good brand In their price range. The basic colored pencils are well pigmented, the water based markers are juicy and can even be used for lettering with some practice. I have found that Prang watercolor is a good set for children although I do add a set of brushes in addition to the watercolor sets. I have confidence in both Crayola and Prang being nontoxic . As my grandchildren get older I have gone with Faber Castell Classic after discovering them on your channel. Enjoyed the video as always.
I agree with everything you said. When you first get into art, it's best to start small and work to the top, especially if you're a child. If you suddenly give them A 150 set of prismas they might feel overwhelmed and too scared to try. When I was a child, my first set was Crayola. I remember every time I had a chance to buy these I would. I enjoyed using those pencils as a child, and then I grew into my teen years. I started investing a little in a Derwent Artists 72 set. I saw it in a local store and I was curious about the quality, it was worth it XD. I was blown away, the difference in quality was just amazing. I know the 120 set is pricey, so that's why I decided it was best to buy these only after I've improved in art with my smaller sets. But I've also seen adults create amazing artwork with Crayola so they are definitely a good budget-friendly set to spend money on. Arrtx and black widows are also perfect choice for teens. They are stunning pencils. I still use them even now as an adult in my colouring pages, but not really for creating my own artwork
Thank you for sharing this lovely video! If I ever have kids, I'll definitely try those products with them
I actually found one of these sets that was very good for what it was, I picked it out because I figured it would be hard to get it wrong. I was right. It's Art 101 watercolor brush pen set, 14 brush pens, I water brush, and 15 5x7 watercolor paper design, a canvas design, and the cakey watercolor. Other than the cake watercolor the other things were fantastic. The thing that most surprised me was how good the paper was with the brush pens, I also used my professional watercolor on it and, just wow, it was very thin but it was almost as if it were entirely made of sizing. I really wish I knew which company provided it. I agree with you that these sets are normally crap. I got this on sale after Christmas for 9 dollars, it was worth every penny. The one thing they could have taught us in school in USA is how important paper is, but not one teacher ever did.
Great video. I like your suggestions for myself to try out different mediums without spending a lot before diving into the pricier brands. I agree getting better quality supplies for kids is a wiser use of money.
How right you are. I really love what you put out man. You're such a great guide.
I also had an art set like this years ago, I used it just a few times and I remember some of the items were bad. Also my parents lent me their berol prismacolor they were so good and still are, maybe I love colored pencils so much thanks to trying them when I was little. 😅 and my parents didn’t really know how “profesional and expensive” the prismacolor were a 4 year old to use back then😂
I remember this
Thank you this is really helpful
What would you suggest in terms of paper? Because children love to use the wet medias as well, and we all know how badly normal printer paper is at taking to that
Any mixed media pad, Daler Rowney sell a decent Mixed Media pad with 30 sheets of paper in a spiral pad for £12 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q6L2ALY/?tag=tecpla30-21 Mixed Media paper is in between watercolour paper and sketch paper. It will take light washes with no problems and will not rub and tear like printer paper does the second so much as a drip of water hits it.
Another excellent paper is Clairefontaine Paint On Mixed media pad, A4 size and 40 sheets, the only thing is it’s not spiral and I think spiral can be a better option for kids, but that is only my opinion. I’ve actually reviewed this paper as I love it so much and this pad is £8 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VHZ49KO/?tag=tecpla30-21
Hope this helps let me know if you need any other help
Also the good thing about the two pads I’ve just mentioned, you can run individual sheets through your printer and print of colouring book outlines for the kids. Don’t stack lots of sheets up as you would printer paper, just add a single sheet and place it on the printer tray. You can search on the internet for free colouring book outlines for kids and print them off. This allows the kids to use whatever medium they like and colour them in.
@@TheArtGearGuide Interesting... I'll keep that in mind
Any Home brand mixed media paper or watercolor paper from an art store like Jacksons, Bromley, blick, michaels or whatever.
Canson XL. If a bit more serious ( as in better/good) in watercolors or painting, a personal favourite is Clairefontaine Etival
I'm totaly agree with you!!! I have alwais think in this cuestion, that why I buy good art supplies for me and for me kid. Because whent I bought this box I though, how the kid can like draw with this art supplies?
Thank you for this video! 🫶🙌👏
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us and for your support, thank you so very much
Complete and utter toot. It’s hard to stay quiet when a I see people picking stuff like this off the shelves and getting excited about how great it is.
A video that had to be made 👍🏻
I just seen the frustration and waste of time we inflicted on our kids when we bought these art sets. Honestly, when we first started buying them for the kids, I used to think how brilliant a find they were and how cheap they were with all those colors. But it wasn’t until I turned to art to help me with PTSD and Depression from serving in the British Army, that it suddenly dawned on me how terrible they were.
Of course by this point it was years too late, the damage was done and I know some people might be thinking, “my goodness Harry it was only an art set” and to an extent they might be right. But my eldest daughter has a real passion for art, which she discovered about the age of 13 or 14. Perhaps had we provided her with products that brought her joy rather than frustration, she might have enjoyed art at a much younger age and developed as an artists even faster and more comprehensively than she did.
Don't beat yourself up over it Harry. If that's the worst but of parenting you've ever done then you're doing well.
@@TheArtGearGuideAs another commenter says, don't beat yourself up about it.
I think it's also easy to neglect the effect affordable (often) Chinese-made art supplies have had on making quality materials more accessible now than in decades past. We may worry about what this will do in the long run for legacy manufacturers that entrusted their designs and formulas with such manufacturing partners, but that genie is out of the bottle...
As a kid, painting is something you do as a kid and then you move on when you grow up. An adult artist is either a fantasy or a failure.
Bad art supplies was a better option for me than no supplies at all. 😂
I remember so many quantity-over-quality felt tip and colour pencil sets from my childhood.
Luckily, by the time my parents were older, they knew of a framing shop that also sold art supplies, and I remember spending some Christmas and birthday money there: I remember a set of 18 Caran d'Ache Prismalo water soluble pencils, and a Daler-Rowney Graduate set of 12 full pans of watercolour. I no longer have the former (I think I gave them away after they'd been bashed around in my school bag for a number of years, replacing them with a small set of Derwent Studio), but I do still have the Daler-Rowney watercolour set - though somewhat depleted, it's still pretty decent 30-odd years later, now I've taught myself more about watercolour.
No way!