Courtney 
Summer is the perfect season for painting on the go. Whether you are on a roadtrip, camping, hiking, hanging at the beach or have some downtime at the kitchen table, you can make art and even paint without a lot of fuss and set up. This is essentially the thesis of my book, Make Art Where You Are. It’s a way of being creative in the world that I stick to even with kids in the mix.
Many years ago, I shared this tutorial on how to put together a travel watercolor palette using tubes of watercolor paint OR pans OR watercolor sticks. You can see ALL the ways in the class. In that same spirit, I wanted to make a matching set for my 5 year old mini-me without using my expensive Daniel Smith watercolor sticks. Usually, I don’t gate-keep my materials and let Luca use whatever I am using, but I wanted her to be able to make a mess and be rough on her materials if she chose. So, a more budget-friendly version of the watercolor kit was something I wanted to create.
Out of every “need” arises an inspiration and I thought… hey… could I use those awesome kids’ tempera sticks for this? Have you tried them? They look like lipstick, come in a bunch of fun colors and are quick-drying but also water-soulable and super budget-friendly. My fav brand is Chunkies and my local shop, Arch Supplies sells them. But would they work?
Spoiler alert… They DO work!
What You’ll Need to Make a Kiddo Travel Watercolor Kit from Paint Sticks:
- A small tin to house the kit. I used a candy tin which is about $6 including the yummy candies. This one is Les Anis de Flavigny which you can find online or in a fancy deli/candy shop. At one point World Market sold them too. They’re around.
- 8-12 kids tempera paint sticks in your chosen palette. My fav brand is Chunkies, but you can try other brands like Kwik Stix. Use this awesome local art supply finder to source yours.
- Water and brush
- Sponge and scissors
- Kitchen knife or box cutter
- Start with a clean tin, free of candy dust.
- Cut a single round from each of your paint sticks into a 1/4″ disk using a kitchen knife or box cutter.
- Gently paint water onto one side of the paint disk and place facedown into the bottom on the tin along the wall of the tin. I usually do one at a time, cutting and placing in the tin.
- Continue to stick each paint disk down along the wall of the tin in the color order you like. I chose a rainbow order. The paint disks can be slippery or refuse to stick, but do your best. Don’t over wet.
- Leave the center of the tin free of paint disks and eye-ball cut a bit of clean kitchen sponge with scissors to wedge into the center. The sponge serves a few purposes: it helps keep your paint disks in place by wedging the sponge in the middle, keeps the paint a little moist, and works to wipe/clean brushes along the way.
I was worried that because these sticks are “quick drying” they wouldn’t work out of the tube and in the tin but we’re three weeks in and the paint re-wets easily just like watercolor.
The tempera sticks are pretty vibrant but not as saturated as a quality watercolor stick. They still give the look and feel of an adult watercolor palette made from pigment sticks and have the surprise element of being housed in a little tin, making them perfect for the car, plane or on the go.
Customize Your Mini Watercolor Palette
Further customize your mini palette with a customized color swatch. Simply trace the tin onto a scrap of watercolor paper and cut inside the line. Paint each color as it appears in the tin onto the paper. Name the color if you like too! I also added Luca’s name to the center since she is just learning how to read, and color names could be lost on her. She will recognize her own name, which make this tin palette special to her!
