The Ultimate Art Supply Gifts from Officeworks
Oct 22, 2022
Whether it’s Christmas, a birthday or you’re just ready to restock your art supply cupboard I find Officeworks is the easiest place to source a bunch of great materials that are perfect for any Little Artist. There seems to be an Officeworks in every suburb, and their aisles of arts and crafts goes on and on and on which is ideal for a busy parent with an arty kid. I really avoid shopping at lot of different places for my art supplies, I really don’t have time and an online order to Officeworks is at my door step within a couple of days.
One thing parents always ask me is “what are the best art supplies to have at home?”, “what watercolour paper should I buy?”, “what are the best paints for kids?”. We have created hundreds of drawing and painting projects inside my Art Club and consider myself an expert on finding quality supplies that your Little Artist will love using. When choosing art supplies I always go with the premise “less is more!”. Some of the items on the list might feel a little too pricey for kids art, but I opt for quality art supplies and brands that offer a strong, bold colour and a great experience for my students- this will have them coming back for more and more creating. These quality art supplies tend to last longer too!
Whilst there are always new brands coming into our stores I’ve put together my current favourite Art Supply List for drawing and painting projects from Officeworks. Each item has been tried and tested by me and hundreds of Little Artists in my Art Club. If you’ve tried something different, then let me know! Other places I like to shop are Zart Art.
WATERCOLOUR PAPER
Watercolour paper is designed to work with watercolour paints. The paper allows the beautiful watercolour texture affect of the paints and the results of techniques such as gladwrap prints, blends and brush strokes are the best. They usually come in pads of 12-25 sheets and can range anywhere between $15-$45. You can use other art supplies with it, such as markers, but I don’t recommend it as it is very expensive! The best choice for kids art projects are the cheapest A3 Watercolour Pads you can find. In my opinion primary aged children do not need expensive, textured, super heavy weight watercolour paper. Some great options from Officeworks under $20 are BORN brand or DERWENT brand. For something special and more expensive, REEVES have a great Watercolour pad too.
WATERCOLOUR PAINTS
By the far the most popular paint set inside my Art Club are the Micador 36s Watercolour palette. We have completed hundreds of projects with these! Another option that has a little more saturation and is great for families with multiple kids is the Micador Brilliant Water Colour product. It comes in little coloured discs that can be passed around from one end of the table to the other while siblings create together. For more experienced artists I adore the Primecolours Watercolours from Zart Art, these paints have a bolder colour and will last years!
The Little Artists pictured have all used watercolour paint sets to complete their artworks. You can find a fun bundle of 6 watercolour art projects in my Amazing Animal art bundle here.
DRAWING & ACRYLIC PAINTING PAPER
Inside my Art Club we use these drawing pads for all our drawing projects like the examples below and liquid paint projects. You can also use watercolour paints on this paper, it will just react a little differently that the paper above. As a general rule any A3 white paper pad that is at least 120gsm (that’s the thickness) is great. Two affordable options of A3 drawing pads under $17 are BORN or DALER RONEY.
Want to roll out some paper on the dinning room table and have a creative arty-noon of drawing and colouring? Then use this roll of easel paper or this butchers paper pad.
COLOURED PAPER
Some beautiful colour collections of A3 paper by QUILL is what I go for. They have bright colours, pastels, blues, warm tones. I usually buy in bulk the A3 120gsm packs for our painting and collage projects - it has 250 sheets for $45. If you don’t need that much rainbow paper then go for their 210gsm assorted packs for $15.
If you’re looking for thin coloured construction paper for process art then use the less expensive KADINK craft paper or thicker A4 coloured card
ART SKETCH BOOK/JOURNAL
If you were in my Art class at school you would be given one of these Derwent Academy A3 Visual Art Diaries. These are great for on-the-go or if you’re travelling. The paper is perfect for most drawing and painting projects, although its a little thinner (110gms). It’s also a nice way to keep your child’s art all in one place.
LIQUID PAINT
This is a staple in any kids art kit. Liquid paint can be called lots of different things from poster paint, tempera or acrylic. I look for a brand that has a rich pigment, is not watery or translucent and that dries quickly. For primary aged children just starting out in their art journey then the KADINK range of poster paints are great. I often match a cheaper poster paint with a more expensive white acrylic paint like this REEVES one. It’s a sneaky way to give your paints an opaque quality. For kids who are a little more experienced the CHROMACRLY Student acrylic is hands-down the best texture and coverage - we use this in bulk our school classrooms too. Chromacrly are around $5 for a 75ml tube, the pigment is strong, opaque and the paint goes along way. If this is too expensive to start, then slowly build up your kit buy adding just add one or two colours to your supplies each time you shop at Officeworks.
Officeworks don’t stock Monte Mart Poster Paints, lots of thrift stores do! The range of Monte Mart Poster paints come in every colour you can think of and are around $4 a bottle - I use them all the time too!
PAINT BRUSHES
I am really frustrated when hair from my paintbrush ends up in my artwork. So I can only imagine the frustration kids feel when they’re continually given disastrous brushes to paint with! Inside the Art Club we generally use only 3 or 4 types of paint brushes, that’s it! At Officeworks you can find ROYMAC or ROYAL & LANGKNICKEL - both brands are great quality. Each brush can set you back between $8-$14, but….if your Little Artist is consistently wanting to paint then these brushes are worth investing in.
Your art kit should include these size brushes in either Roymac or Royal & Langknickel Brand:
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Small Round brush - like this Size 4 Round Paint Brush
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Medium Round brush - we use this Size 8 Round Paint Brush 99% of the time so I like to have a few in my art kit.
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Medium Flat Brush - Size 6
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Large Flat Brush - Size 12
These sizes (plus more) come in a pack by Royal & Langknickel for $18.50, which turns out cheaper than buying them individually.
For a cheaper variety bulk set of brushes to Little Artists started then this pack by Royal & Langknickel is a good start. Some really stunning artworks that teach children the difference between the size and type of brush include our Rainbow Dashes, Christmas Polar Bear and Alma Woodsey Thomas landscapes (these are dropping into the Art Club next month!). You can also find a collection of 6 crowd favourite video painting projects to practice your brush skills in my Paint Party Art Bundle.
OIL PASTELS
We use oil pastels in almost every painting project inside my Art Club. I look for oil pastels that are water resistant and permanent. Not all of them art which is disappointing when your kids comes to try to use them with watercolour paints and the colour starts to blend and dissolve. My favourite ones from Officeworks are the Reeves 12 or 24 Pack Oil Pastels (NOT the water soluable ones), followed by a more expensive option Faber Castel 12 Pack for $19.30. The Born oil pastels unfortunately are not water resistant - I don’t recommend these. The Educational Colours fluro range looks great but I haven’t tried them with watercolour paints yet.
But my ultimate favourites are actually stocked at Zart Art here - this is one supply I go out of my way to buy. They also have fluro oil pastels.
CRAYONS
Every Little Artist needs a classic standard pack of Crayola crayons. They are FAB stocking fillers, and for under $2 I always buy a few packs at a time. Crayola’s are very thin and can snap easily - this OK! But if your Little Artist doesn’t know their own strength then I recommend these Jumbo Wax Crayons from Staedtler. They’re thicker, water resistant and very smooth (I have these and my cheaper crayola pack).
I also love some chunky crayons that are coming on the market like these Slick Stixs from Crayola - they’re cross between a crayon and smooth oil pastel. And Faber Castell have a really great product called Gel Pastels like these. Gel Pastels are also a mix of a crayon and oil pastels plus when you add water with a paint brush they turn into paint!!! We use them in the Art Club as sparkly details over the top of paint. Their plastic case avoids the crayon snapping and is a really lovely experience for young kids as the pigment is strong and the coverage is solid and quick!
We use crayons in my Art Club to create patterns and drawing outlines, then paint over the top in watercolours. You can find some really beautiful projects using this technique in the Art Club or my Fantasy Art Bundle.
MARKERS
Crayola are a front runner with coloured markers. I love using their BROAD tip washable markers and they are as they say ‘washable’. This means if they end up on your cream couch, they will wash out! If you have a few kids at home then this larger pack of Crayola markers might suit you better. For colouring projects thicker/wider tip markers work best for a quick cover rather than thinner ones. Other marker packs that follow with this favourite are the Faber Castel Jumbo Triangular Markers.
SHARPIE
Sharpies are a must in our Art Club supply kit. Whenever they’re on special I always buy a few Fine Point Black Sharpies like these. We also have a few more projects on their way that include coloured sharpies like this multi coloured fine pack. These can be used on different surfaces such as fabric, acetate, porcelain, clay.
POSCA PAINT MARKERS
Officeworks have the most extensive range of POSCA’s. Paint pens deliver an opaque, paint like quality in a pen and can be used on top of dried paint, watercolours and on surfaces such as clay. We recently created stunning Folk Art Landscapes with Posca’s. While they’re a little expensive, POSCA’S are the front runner when it comes to paint pens. Make sure you take note of the tip - we use the medium bullet point tip markers. This pack is a great place to start as a special gift for a Little Artist over 8 years old. If you have a younger Artist at home, then this paint pen alternatives from Kmart also work well.
For a bundle of stunning art lessons using paint and paint pens check out my Paint Party Art Bundle.
