Time and again we are reminded to encourage the kids to explore their creative sides. Whether parents, teachers, and those who are left to care for kids schedule activities, allocate creative rooms that would make their right part of the brain busy.
We buy them coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, sketch pads, watercolors and brushes, felt pens, erasers, colored papers, and other materials that will encourage them to draw, color, even cut and glue stuff.
Easels
One thing that would make a difference in your creativity game are easels. Having one or two around the house encourages kids to create, knowing what an easel’s purpose is.
An easel is a support usually made of wood used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it. Easels are traditionally used by painters, intended to support a canvas or other media while they paint on it, normally standing up. Easels are also sometimes used to display already finished paintings.
There are different kinds of easels you can buy or DIY for the kids, depending on their interests and the availability of space.
Artists’ easels
These are the typically fully adjustable easels made to accommodate different angles. Most artists’ easels have built-in anti-skid plates on the feet. They are also collapsible and made to be very slim in stature so as to fit in small spaces. The simplest form is usually a tripod, with three vertical posts joined at one end.
Tabletop Easels
Tabletop easels are best for those who work on smaller canvases and so they don’t need a full-size easel. It is also for beginner artists who have limited space, at home mostly. And also for those who need a portable easel, ones they can carry around – even outside the home.
Facilitation easels
If you do not like to throw away paper again and again, there are other types of children’s easels that you might prefer.
There are also easels that function as a presentation stand but you can also use at home for the kids to draw on.
Flip chart
You’ve definitely seen these large paper sheets fixed to the upper edge of a whiteboard, or supported on a tripod or four-legged easel in school. Teachers like to use them for presentations, for the ease of flipping over the paper on top to go on the next topic. Since it’s portable, they could just carry it to the next class without writing again, saves time and resources.
Erasable White Board
White boards use a special kind of pen and eraser, so make sure that you are ready and so are the kids to use it.
Chalkboard
If allergies ain’t a problem, you might opt for a chalkboard on a tripod. Get your little ones a variety of colored chalk and an eraser to engage them for hours of fun and creativity.
Children’s easels
Made sturdy especially for kids, children’s easels are smaller or shorter and with a little container for art materials. Children’s easels could work as a multi-functional art support system, as it could have a whiteboard, a chalkboard on the other side, and the hanging on top rolls of paper for kids to draw on. Much like a combination of the above-mentioned types of easels.
Pochade boxes
A pochade box is a box designed for painters who paint pochades (or color sketches) outdoors or ‘plein air’. The box is meant to be a carry-all for painting equipment. It also has a hinged lid to secure items and support paintings. You see this used by those artists you pay your portrait drawn.
Paint stations
Unlike pochade boxes, paint stations are stationary, but has the features of various holsters and slots meant to hold buckets, brushes and canvases. It’s a smart way to organize a small painting/modelling workspace at home or studio.
DIY Drawing Boards
If you have the time and resources, you can easily make a drawing board that could be well-fitted in the corner of your child or children’s room/s. Here are 2 ways to do it.
Tack on Board
The second photo on this post is a DIY tack on board. Using a board mounted on the wall, you can tack pieces of paper which the kids can draw on. When finished, you can replace the paper easily.
Putting boards that is bigger than the paper you would attach will protect the wall from unwanted paint.
Wall Mounted Paper Rolls
Taking inspiration from the paper rolls attached on easels, this piece can be easily mounted on walls.
There are a lot of easels and drawing boards for kids you can choose from. Any of them will keep the kids curious and encouraged to try their hands at painting.
Meanwhile, if you still haven’t DIY’d one, or your easel order hasn’t arrived yet, a graffiti box will work wonders. Who knows, one day you kids’ work may be displayed at the Louvre.