I wasn’t sure how to phrase this, but it’s Lou painting with acrylics. Those little Crayola paints that come in plastic are great and count as “real” paint too, but they are watercolors. I didn’t want to call this “painting with non-watercolors” so there you go.

Since I’m an artist I have tons of paint pre mixed in colors I like. And since I am no longer painting I am ok with Lou destroying them.

Acrylics are great. They dry fast and are professional. They are also toxic. However they are only toxic if you eat them (kids that still put hands in mouth shouldn’t go near them.) Oils are toxic if you smell them.

I’ll write on specific paints tomorrow. As for set up for painting we lay out our trusty tablecloth, a waterproof one is best but sometimes we just double layer a normal table cloth that we don’t mind destroying. Then I get some thick paper, cardboard or wood. I bring out my mixed paints and a container of maybe an inch of water and a couple brushes.

The water gets dirty after each color, so I rinse her brushes and get fresh water with every color change.

She decides when each painting is done and I have more paper at the ready.

Sometimes we use colored paper which I highly recommend if you want to frame something. We don’t break out the big box of acrylics much. It’s a mess, stains, and not safe to eat. It’s so much easier to bring out the little hard watercolors, and they do the job fine. But sometimes I can’t resist bringing them out.

Tomorrow I’ll write a guide to paints…