Teaching your children to draw and create art is a valuable skill at any age or skill level. If you are like me and have very little artistic flair, then outsourcing to someone that does is fortunately very easy – you don’t even have to leave the house!!
The rise of all things electronic, in particular YouTube, has afforded families with a plethora of art lessons which can be accessed from a computer or device anywhere you can get internet access. So fire up the laptop, get out your art supplies and get your children creating.
Art Supplies
Before you begin there are a few basic art supplies you should have at your disposal. Of course, you don’t need all of these, and can certainly improvise, but this list is a good starting point. Most supplies can be found at your local supermarket, department store or discount shop.
- Lead and colouring pencils
- Other writing implements – chalk, crayons, coloured markers, oil pastels
- Plain white paper
- Coloured paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paint
Additional supplies
- Glitter
- Googly eyes
- Coloured feathers
- Paddle pop sticks
- Pom poms
- Washi tape (patterned and coloured tape)
- Hot glue gun (for adult use only)
- Stapler
- Wool and fabric scraps
Our Top 5 YouTube Sites for Kids’s Art Tutorials
1. Art for Kids Hub
Art for Kids Hub, hosted by Rob and his family, demonstrates step by step, a variety of art lessons for kids (and adults too) including how to draw, painting, sculpting, cut-outs and origami. New art lessons are uploaded every week, so there is an endless supply of stimulating activities. Lessons range from farm animals, dinosaurs and unicorns, to Disney characters, Harry Potter and Lego characters, so there is bound to be something to suit everyone’s needs. The majority of lessons are between 5 – 10 minutes so perfect to fit into a busy day.
Rob keeps lessons simple, positive and fun, encouraging artists to use his instructions as a guide only. There are weekly challenges and a chance to send in a pic of your artwork to have it displayed on the Art for Kids Hub page. The benefit of YouTube channels for learning art is the ability to pause, rewind and replay your lessons at any time, which is great for those wishing to perfect their art skills.
YouTube: Art for Kids Hub or website
2. Red Ted Art
Red Ted Art is a wonderful site for easy to follow arts and craft for children. Many projects utilise everyday items, so it is easy to get started straight away. Projects include papercraft, bead art, simple sewing, jewellery making plus many more fun-filled activities.
Maggy has created a large collection of playlists which group arts and crafts together under one theme, such as Teens and Tweens, 5-minute crafts, character crafts and recycled DIY’s just to name a few. These can be a great starting point for discovering all Red Ted Art has to offer.
YouTube: Red Ted Art or website
3. Art Land
If you want to learn to draw Art Land is a great place to start. Two videos are uploaded every day – one easy and one advanced. There is also a substantial catalogue of videos to draw on (pun intended) and if you can’t find what you are after, you can always leave a comment for it to be included at a later date. Videos are well presented, with clear instructions and done at a slow pace – which is perfect for beginners. Topics included in Art Land are sports, video games, flowers, book characters, food and more.
YouTube: Art Land
4. Babble Dabble Do
The Babble Dabble Do channel on YouTube is choc full of creative activities to stimulate your children (and possibly make a lot of mess). Videos are short and to the point, showing how you make/do the project, then at the end of the video you basically go and perform the activity yourself. Themes include art, science, engineering, design and DIY.
YouTube: Babble Dabble Do or website
5. Facedrawer
Whilst there is some content that is great for younger children, I find this site more suitable for the older primary school-age children and teenagers. There are tutorials on how to draw Pokémon, Minecraft, Lego characters, Minions, 3D trick art and drawings which use the shape of your hand as the outline. Videos tend to move along quite quickly, which could become frustrating for those that are just learning to draw, so make sure you pause frequently to keep up.
YouTube: Facedrawer or website
Draw with Rob
With children now stuck at home across the world, parents will be wondering how to keep them busy over the coming weeks. That’s why illustrator Rob Biddulph has taken to Twitter to offer a series of draw-along videos for kids.
YouTube Draw with Rob
Other YouTube Art Channels for Kids
In addition to our favourites listed above, here are some other notable YouTube art channels:
- Muffalo Potato
- DoodleDrawArt
- Draw So Cute
- Cool Kids Art
- Draw Kids Draw
- The Artful Parent
- Draw with Ian
- Cartooning Club How to Draw
Notes and tips to Parents and Carers
- As with any online activity, be sure to monitor your child’s screen usage, the content they are viewing and interactions they may be having online.
- Drawing at the speed of the Youtuber is unlikely, so be prepared to pause often.
- Drawing with your child is a great way to spend time together and produce some family artwork to display on the wall or cut out and add to the front of a blank greeting card for a future celebration.
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