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This is a hill I will die on.

Buy the good stuff, quality over quantity. Invest in high quality materials they'll last, a few high quality blending colored pencils, will be much better for your child to work with than 300 waxy unblendable colored pencils that will be limiting and a source of frustration So make the investment of a few high quality supplies for your child to work with.

Encourage your student to Pick a challenging new medium and to work through the frustrations.  Children are brilliant magical creature that deserve to be treated as professional artists because frankly they are!

Here's my list of some of may favorite materials along with descriptions of the material. There are some affilate thinks, feel free to use them or visit your local art supply store to get what you need. This is just a suggestion of materials, you buy no need need all of the supplies or any at all you can work with what you have at home.  I love prismacolors for colored pencils, markers and pastels. They are great quality and a worthy investment. 

 Prisma Colored pencils

Pastels

Prismacolor Colorless blender marker- this is great for both markers and colored pencils

https://amzn.to/2BTbNJh

Prismacolor Colorless blender pencil, it great for colored pencils for blending and creating texture.

Oil Pastels 

Sketching Traditional Materials

Conte crayons 

Pencils

Graphite lead woodless pencils 

Paint

Gouache 

Watercolor

Watercolor pencils and crayons 

Acrylic Paint 

Gel Mediums

Brushes Get the right brush for the right paint. Soft brushes are great for watercolors.

Water Color Brushes

Acrylic Brushes

Palate Knives

Substrates aka Paper

Cutting down good quality paper when learning and experimenting with the medium is helpful. Move on to large pieces of paper to create finished artwork and projects 

WaterColor Paper

Canvas

Other supplies 

 Exacto Knife and Blades and cutting mat

Free stuff

Old magazines, cardboard, paint chips, old photos, Newspaper, sticks, pressed flowers. 

I know this was a long one but the idea is to have this blog to come back to and reference for what fits your families needs.

-Julia