Making Brushstrokes, 7 tips to teach kids | Painting

By Spramani Elaun

In this blog post I want to share the first painting lesson I give my students on how to make controlled brushstrokes.

These lessons are simple to teach and playful, kids love them!

I can usually get kids up and painting with these 7 steps.

Included in this blog is my materials list and set-up below.

I usually first introduce these 7 steps, then have kids work on the exercises independently.

This lesson is great for introductory to painting.

You can prepare kids for any painting project by first doing these quick exercises.

This lesson is best for students 5 – 12 years of age and up.

Younger children that can sit for up to 20 minutes, can be taught some of these lessons.

Remember this should be fun and playful for the student.

Materials & Supplies you will need:

Large paper

Paintbrush

Paint Buy

Small Jar

Napkins

Paper: large 11 x 17 or larger, cream to white, be sure its light-colored so brushstrokes can be seen clearly.

Paintbrush: any round tip paintbrush will work, see picture example.

Paint: tempera, Chinese Ink, acrylic, watercolor, or poster paint can all work.

Prepare Thin Paint: create a thin wash of paint. Water down like the consistency of creamier milk, but with only water. You want paint to be very flow feeling and runny. If it drips too much off the paintbrush then it’s too thin, thicken back up with more paint.

Color: Dark colors – black is best, but dark blue, green, or brown will work.

Small jar for paint: something small like a baby food jar will work great. This is where you will place paint inside. After kids have practice then you can move them to a deep well artist palette. It’s best to work out of jars for beginners until they understand how to move around with paint on a bush.

Napkins: for wiping paintbrush off, or resting paintbrush on.

Step-by-step Lessons

Step 1.

Correct brushstrokes & Incorrect brushstrokes

Show kids how to make a controlled brushstroke sweeping motion, not dragging or scrubbing. Demonstrate this motion a couple of times without paint on the paintbrush. Also demonstrate an incorrect brushstroke without paint. Pretend to make the motions on paper before getting started. In my video I show you how to do it with the paint on the paintbrush, but I recommend first have kids practice sweeping motion without paint the very first time.

Step 2.

Explain the meaning of loading a paintbrush.

Introduce the word loading. Loading a paintbrush is the action of filling the bristles with paint. The paintbrush is loaded and ready to make a brushstrokes.

Step 3.

Load the paintbrush

Load the paintbrush in front of the child. You can all do it together. Dip the paintbrush into the jar of paint to load the paintbrush.

Step 4.

Make brushstrokes

Load paintbrush with paint. Make a couple of sweeping medium length brushstrokes until the paint runs dry.

Step. 5.

Wide brushstrokes

Reload paintbrush. Make sweeping brushstroke marks by pressing a little firmly to show how this makes wide brushstrokes. Have kids practice this step a couple of times.

Step 6.

Thin brushstrokes

Reload paintbrush. Make seeping brushstrokes with the tip of the paintbrush by trying not to press too hard. Only use the tip by applying one-third pressure onto the surface. brushstrokes should appear thinner than step 5. Have kids practice making many thin brushstrokes.

Step 7.

Explain how the painter controls brushstrokes by pressure, but never scrapping or scrubbing the paintbrush on the surface. Thin marks are made by painting with the tip and lighter pressure, wider brushstrokes are made with or of the bristles, and more pressure. Brushstrokes are smooth controlled sweeping motions by the artist.

Brushstrokes exercises

Short

Medium

Thin

Wide & Thin

Dashes

spirals

Long

Waves

Dots

Squares

Circles

Triangles

Hearts

Stars

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