Cool tools for aspiring artists

"I can't draw!" Adults say it all the time. While most grown-ups worry that our representations aren't realistic enough or our line quality might waver, children will just pick up a crayon or a pencil and start making marks. A little practice, and the marks add up to an individual style of communicating their fantasies and realities.

"Drawing is the most expressive of mediums," wrote Nancy Beal, a well-known New York art teacher, in her book, The Art of Teaching Art to Children. Drawing provides "a direct route outward from a child's heart," she added.

Children draw what they love, whether it's from life or from imagination. In a child's drawing, you can ride a bus to school, ride your own bulldozer, or just fly. You can see your family members just as they are, see them with purple hair in a room full of candy, or see right through them with X-ray vision.

Whether your child is just getting started with drawing or it's time to broaden your young artist's technical horizons with some new drawing materials, try a few of Poloppo's favorite pencils, markers, charcoals and crayons. (And while you're at it, why not follow your child's lead? Pick up a new drawing material, forget that you can't draw, and see what happens!)

Pencils

Graphite or colored, hard or soft, pencils are as varied as the artists who use them. Experiment with different hues, shades, and grades of hardness to find out which work best for different projects.

Reeve's Pencil Sets are a beginning artist's standby. Hard, medium, soft and extra soft pencils come packaged together, so you can make bold gesture lines, fine contour lines, and precision shading. Sets of 6, 10, 12 or 13 pencils come pre-sharpened, so you can get started drawing as soon as you open the package.

Faber Castell's factory in Brazil operates its own tree nursery to ensure that its Grip Pencils are made from renewable, reforested wood. Soft grip-dots make the vibrantly colored pencils non-slip and easy to hold; their triangular shape keeps them from rolling off the table.

Charcoal

Charcoal makes lush, dark, velvety lines that you can't get with any other medium.

Winsor & Newton Vine & Willow Charcoal Packs contain sticks of compressed charcoal that you can smudge, smear, and even wipe off.

For kids who want to try charcoal but like to keep their hands clean, try General's All-Charcoal Drawing Set. The assortment of soft, medium, and hard charcoal pencils includes a sharpener, an eraser, and a white charcoal stick for making lighter shades of gray.

Markers

From professional crafters to inventive teens to babies, there's a just-right marker for everyone.

Crafters and kids both favor Tombow Dual Brush Markers, a two-in-one drawing tool with a fine-tip marker at one end and a point like a watercolor brush at the other end. The inks wash onto paper like watercolor paint, and you can blend them to make custom shades or use a brush dipped in water to soften the colors.

Two- and three-year-olds love to draw, but if your toddler's idea of coloring outside the lines means coloring the floor, their clothes and their skin, don't worry. Crayola Washable Markers are so washable they seem like magic. Ink-marked hands and faces come entirely clean with the stroke of a baby wipe, and marks disappear from clothing in one wash. Broad-line or fine-tip markers are widely available in stores, even well-stocked grocery stores, so they're perfect when you need to pick up a last-minute party activity.

Crayons

The wax crayon hasn't changed much since it debuted in 1903, but a few recent innovations have caught our eye.

Crayon Rocks look like overgrown jelly beans but they're really rock-shaped crayons. They're handmade, rounded nuggets of soft, non-toxic soybean wax. The easily graspable rocks allow children with compromised fine-motor skills to get a better grip on an art-making tool.

If you've ever wondered why you child's crayons and paints are still made from petroleum products while your company's been printing its marketing materials with soy-based ink for a few years now, check out Stockmar Beeswax Crayons. These vibrantly colored, pleasant-smelling, break-resistant crayons are made without any petroleum-based ingredients.