Easel for 8 year old.

[vonnyh]

My DD has asked for an easel and acrylic paints for Christmas. Does anyone know where I can buy an art set that isn't too young for her?

[Anifrangapani]

Argos have all sorts of easels - we are getting the desk top one for dd (7 - nearly 8)

[Stayingsunnygirl]

I'd second a desk-top easel - I find them far easier to use, and you can get wooden ones that have drawers in for the paints and brushes etc.

WHS often have very reasonably priced starter sets of acrylic paints, and you can get her pads of paper for acrylic paints there too. It's worth getting her some reasonable brushes - cheapy ones are really frustrating to use. Perhaps a grandparent/aunt/uncle could get her a set of brushes?

Acrylic is a really good choice - it washes out of brushes easily and dries fast so that if you make a mistake, you can paint over it quickly. You can also put light colours on top of dark ones, which you can't with watercolour - I started with watercolours and got rather disheartened as one mistake can ruin a picture, and I tended to wait until the picture was nearly finished before making a serious mistake.

[borderslass]

reeves paints are good quality without being to expensive.

[snorkie]

Some nice art sets in Lidl from Thursday, including nice acrylic paint set and tabletop easel.

[borderslass]

the paints in lidl aren't very good they dry out very easily but the rest of the art stuff is OK.

[Stayingsunnygirl]

You can slow down the drying of acrylic paints by making a stay-wet palette for them to go on. You can buy them, but making is easier - get a plate or cheap trap, line with damp kitchen roll and put damp baking paper on top. Hey presto, staywet palette. Spray on a little bit of water if it starts to dry out.

[vonnyh]

Thanks for all the replies, will check out Argos!