We have always painted: finger paint, watercolor paint, tempera paint. Now we can add brush pens onto that list. I love how in the art world, there are always new materials just waiting to be played with! I wonder by the end of the year, how many more I can add onto the list of paints.
There was one of those lightening deals going on, on Amazon and I just couldn’t resist to try these Aretza Brush Pens out with my kids. I’ve been eyeing them for awhile.
Recently, I was inspired to have a go with watercolors. I splurged on a seemingly very good quality set of Japanese watercolors, along with a Japanese black brush pen (my try at it to be shared- stay tuned!).
Hence, I was drawn to the ease of use when it came to brush pens. No water necessary watercolor painting fun? Say, what?! As a busy mommy of 3, I’m sure moms, parents, grandparents, teachers, guardians; you can all relate to times when you just don’t have time or energy to clean up the aftermath of paints or dealing with potential spills.
Today was our first day the girls got to test then out and I can say, you have to try out Brush Pens if you haven’t already given them a try. I wonder why these aren’t as well-known or popular like markers, pastels or crayons popular group? I wonder if they’ve always been around, because I haven’t heard of them until this year. They seemed to have enjoyed them very much so. No explanation necessary, they just took the cap off and they were at it, creating and experimenting with this new art tool! It truly reflected watercolors, without the mess.
I saw how they almost therapeutically glided the brush across the page and made the prominent brush strokes, color by color . They would pause for a moment to admire the mark they made and proceeded to have a whirl at the way the brush pen works; I guess you can say that they were just as intrigued as I was, when I first tried out brush pens. They were observing and reminiscing on how blending certain colors, made new colors. I loved how the pen wasn’t runny as you would expect since the ink was made already preloaded into the brush. It was the perfect amount of ink and flow. By the end of their brush pen session, the youngest even decided she wanted to blend and use two colors at the same time (you can see her final artwork at the end of this page), using red and yellow!
I haven’t tested out how washable this is yet (it wasn’t messy at all!); but I’ll give an update once I test that out, as we will most definite be using these often!
But, seriously, if you haven’t tried out Brush Pens with the little ones yet, I highly recommend them. As per their website, they are non-toxic and use water-based ink for the watercolor effect.
Let me know if you’ve ever used Brush Pens. If you have, what age group have you done them with? And, how do you like them? Or, share your creations below!
Hopscotch Mom 