As a big fan of paint, I was not sure how to react to a mess free alternative to the paintbrush and liquid paint. Tempera paint blocks or cakes, you know the ones:
They are still popular in classrooms and centers but I find they don’t give great coverage. Sometimes students are frustrated by the wateriness of the paint. Learning to apply paint from a tempera cake, without ripping your paper with too much water can be a challenge! However, they have a time and place and are great to pull out quickly, with minimal cleanup.
Liquid tempera, you know the type:
It is great for coverage but can be messy to apply and clean up!
As a fan of the process rather than the product, my initial reaction to Tempera Paint Sticks was the hope that they would not replace the process of painting, which I believe all children need to explore, learn and enjoy.
I am a huge fan of oil pastels and wondered if they would be similar.
Turns out they are even more awesome! They are smooth to apply as they glide over the paper and yet they look like a glue stick. They dry almost instantly with full coverage. Check it out:
My daughter’s reactions were funny. Daisy said “Oh these are cool, they are kinda like a crayon and kinda like an oil pastel.” and “they go on really easy”.
Rose said “awesome” and “can we use them later?” when I told her to get ready for the bus.
They were both engrossed in their art.
They are so easy to apply, drawing is a natural reaction to using these paint sticks, as you can see from the photos.
We applied liquid watercolour paint on top of the tempera paint sticks and it stayed put. Not bad for newsprint paper!
The paint dries almost instantly so artwork can be taken home the same day.
Let’s face it there are times when you want great colour impact but don’t have time to pull out the paints. These tempera paint sticks give the colour impact without the mess of paint or the smudging of oil pastel. What more can I say?