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Remember when the only “skin” color in the crayon box was Peach? When I was young, my coloring books were full of “peach” people. Brown was too dark and peach was, well no one has peach colored skin, do they? I didn’t know that I could have used two colors to create a skin tone closer to mine.
Our kids have more options now. I love finding crayon boxes with multiple shades of brown. It’s important that kids can express themselves in their art. Even more important is giving them the options to do so and not limiting them to “peach.”
With back-to-school sales hitting stores now, you might even be able to score these multicultural art supplies at your local big box store. If not, Amazon is always open.
Must Have Multicultural Art Supplies
Crayola Multicultural Crayons These were the crayons I wished I had a kid!
Crayola Washable Multicultural Colors Markers I had no idea these existed until my girlfriend sent me a photo! Any parent with young kids will appreciate that these are washable.
Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers in Portrait These are great for the more sophisticated artist in your family. I might be talking about myself here.
Crayola Multicultural Colored Pencils If your kids are more into pencil colors, these are a great addition to the traditional color set.
If you’re looking for highly quality pencils, try Derwent Colorsoft Skintone Pencils. They come in a tin, which is great for travel.
Derwent Academy Watercolor Pencils, Skintones Watercolor pencils are two types of art supplies in one. Draw your picture with them and run over it with a wet paintbrush to turn your masterpiece into a watercolor! For less mess, try a water brush, where the water is stored in the barrel of the brush.
I’m excited to see these Cray-Pas Multicultural Oil Pastels. My kids love the way oil pastels just glide over paper. Trying drawing with them and then painting over it with water colors. It’s a fun way to mix your media.
I know not every parents enjoy the mess that comes with painting, but I swore by these Crayola Washable Paints when the kids were younger. Even better, let them “paint” the walls in your shower. Then play “window washer” and have them clean it up. For faster clean-up, let your kids paint in only their underwear or diaper.
Having a variety of skin toned construction paper is important too. Especially if your family has multiple skin tones like ours. Jaxson is really into collages of our family right now.
Do you have any of these in your art stash?
Want more? Here’s a list of multicultural craft supplies!
Had no idea these existed. Thanks!
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Yes! I always made sure that I had the multicultural crayons in my classroom when I taught even if I had to buy them with my own money. It was so important for me to help all of my students feel as if they were represented in my room especially after years of growing up and not feeling like there was ever a crayon, band-aid, makeup, etc. in my skin tone. Thanks for the great list!
I'm so glad you did that in your classroom. Maybe I should be extra to donate to the teachers. I remember that feeling growing up too. Nothing was ever my color.