Batik Painting at Central Market!

It is a short school holiday, thanks to the National Independent Day, kids have a week long break so I decided to take a few days off to arrange for a short trip. Time to learn more about our own homeland through cuti-cuti Malaysia, which literarily means travel in Malaysia.  :)

(Of course I may opt to leave them in the day care, but what better way to learn but to walk the walk and experience the outside world?)

We have one extra day before the planned trip, to fully utilize the promotion period (until 31/8) for the newly launched MRT line which links the urbur townships from Sungai Buloh to Kajang with the city center and other parts of the Klang Valley I decided to take the duo to Central Market, or better know to the local as Pasar Seni (central art market) for a visit, and to get our hands dirty with some batik painting. I have read about it sometimes ago and the reviews were mostly good. So here we were, paid just $1.80 (adult) and $0.90 (kids 6y and albvoe) for the comfortable ride from Damansara Mutiara station (eCurve) and reached straight to Pasar Seni station.

We approached the friendly information counter staff and asked for direction (save us time to search!), and Aina Artwork Studio  was easy to locate -just head straight and it's at the end of the exit door.

We choose our frame each - RM10 for a small frame and RM15 for a big frame, there were plenty of template designs to choose from, E picked a Nemo fish while C was insistent with hisbiscus flowres, and I was attracted to the Helaconia drawing which reminded me of our garden.

After a brief introduction by the helpful staff. We started painting right away.

Painting time! C painted her hibiscus leaves in different shades of green.

Everyone was so concentrated to make the best painting, just look at E..

Cute little Nemo fish by E.

And we were all done 30 minutes later!

Pretty happy with their creations. Not bad for a first timer:))

If you are interested to try out this DIY activities too, just head straight to Pasar Seni & look for Aina Artwork. They open 7 days a week, from 10am - 9pm except some special public holidays such as Merdeka Day or Hari Raya.

The collage below shows the progress of my helaconia painting.. it's indeed pretty easy as we were "guided" by the template made with wax (that would be the next class I aim to join - batik drawing with wax!)

Before leaving, we decided to be tourists for a day - let's shoot a picture for memory! :))

Authentically Malaysian - 3D heritage buidling postcards! 

Happy Merdeka, my fellow Malaysian! 

Getting there:

Aina Artwork

Central Market (Pasar Seni)

Jalan Hang Kasturi, City Centre, 

50050 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Painting Fun.... Of Colors & Brushes

Little ones and I have been painting again lately. I have stopped it for the past few months as my little girl can be quite a messy queen and leave behind a huge scene for me. Not that she is any less messier now but at least she will take instructions better and know how to clean up after herself and tidy up the 'crime scene', so I decided to start the weekend painting / crafting routine.

I shopped for some new paint brush to teach my little handsome the different brushing techniques which I could still vaguely recall. I attended drawing classes ages ago, when I was still a primary schooler myself. 

We setup the table and tools, and they could not wait to get started. To avoid fighting, each have their own set of water colors and palette. I used the disposable kitchen tower we bough from the RM5 shop to dap the brush, very absorbent and no washing required afterward! 

For little C, I let her paint on pre-printed A4 papers while for E who's already 5.5 years old, I let him draw on the drawing paper and choose his own colors. I then guided him how to make use of the different brushes like how my art teacher used to guide me..

• Round point - used for strokes, lines and coloring large objects

• Liner brush - for fine lines,detailing and outlining

• Flat - for creating texture effect like wood, water, grass, clouds.

Unfortunately my little boy had much shorter patience than me, after spending a min listening he showed me that bored face and couldn't wait to start painting right away. LOL, I love to annoy him sometimes, privilege of a mom. *evil laugh*

The result? To my surprise they are bad at all. I love their use of colors, bold and eye catchy.

Painting by my little E. I love those multi-colored trees and the multi-level super market (it's not a tower as he claimed its too small to be one). I helped him on some of the objects in order to explain the different brushing technique, but the choice of colors was solely his. Can you tell which cloud was mine or his creation? 

Painting by little C. This is the 3rd of her painting and she has finally learnt to control the paint brush better without smudging too hard till the paper is torn. That is one big improvement if you ask me.I don't care so much if she colors within the line, or use the "logical" color of the object. Just want to let her express her creativeness and enjoy the fun of painting. After all this is her artwork, not mine. I think she deserves a star for this piece. :)

It's a fruitful 60 minutes spent and I honestly look forward for the next weekend..

Happy Sunday!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fun Painting with Okra!

We had okra (or commonly known as lady's fingers) for dinner earlier and I kept one aside while cooking, for this - free style painting, or more like stamping with this little veggie. :)

I cut it into 3 chunks, and let my little boy mixed the colors as he wish in the palette. With only 3 different colors - blue, yellow, orange, we created a beautiful maze made of various pentagons. 

Well... I'll be honest. It was just random stamping by both of us and after trying to figure out something that make sense out of the random stampis, I managed to convert it into a maze. Hehe. So, after I cahllended my little boy to complete the maze, which he did effortless and proudly announced its just too easy. :)

Anyway, we had fun and it's quite an interesting piece of art. :)

I would have used celery stems too unfortunate we have ran out of it, perhaps next time. You may also try out potato which allow freestyle stamping.

Psss.. You can choose to make your own homemade paint in case you are concern on safety hazard for your little ones. I found this simple recipe from http://www.hopkinshoppinhappenings.com/2012/04/homemade-finger-paint.html, looks really easie peasie!

Fun with Water Color! The Beginning of Color Theory

Now that my little boy is 4, I figured its time to let him experience with water color, it's the ideal way to teach him color mixing theory that can't be done with color pencil nor crayon. So instead of all the fancy toys, I bought him a set of water color and color palette for his birthday.

This is his first time painting with water color, using the printouts of little pirates I prepared for his birthday :)

Little Pirate, first water color project with my boy

He was really determined to do a good job...

Learning the Basic
We started with these prime colors: blue, red, yellow; they are the base for creating any other colors. I taught him basic of color mixing using these 3 colors, where:

Blue + Yellow = Green
Yellow + Red = Orange
Red + Blue = Purple

(To make it more interesting, I actually told him I'm going to show him a magic ;))

Next, I introduced him to changing the depth of the colors by using white, where:

White + Red = Pink
White + Black = Grey
White + Green = Light Green

This let him understand the usage of white is to lighten up any other color when mixed.

Well, I probably should have taught him the secondary color and tertiary color mixing instead, but I just thought coloring with a 4 yo need to have more fun elements instead of just following the procedure, so I just did it my way.. :)


After he had understood the basic handling of water color painting, I just left it onto him to explore freely. For example:
- handling the color tube (squeeze just the right amount and must close tight after each use),
- mixing the colors (need to add just a little drop of water for the color to mix well),
- holding the paint brush properly (it's different from holding a color pencil),
- cleaning the paint brush after each use,
- any thing else I left out?? *thinking*

The color palette was full of colors, a result of his exploration.. :)

He painted the picture at the bottom all by himself as I took baby for a shower. I was pleasantly surprised by the result, good usage of colors and he managed to mix the brown color by himself, which was a good try!



Once the paintings are dried, we will hang them onto the Ethan's Wall - the wall in his room which features all his beautiful artwork.


Useful Tips...
1. If you are interested to try this out with your little ones too, the basic preparation you should have before beginning:

- Water color (non-toxic), a pointy brush and a color palette.
- A water proof apron for your kiddo to protect his shirt
- Some tissues for the hands and a clothe for wiping the brush after each wash.

2. I only introduced 3 colors at a time to avoid him from getting confused, let the little brain has some time to digest and absorb. :)

3. It's important to teach the kiddo to wash their hands using soup after each painting session, you wouldn't want them to eat any of the water color accidentally! ;)

4. To encouraging creativity, refrain from giving too much inputs and instructions. If he wants the hair to be blue, then so be it. It's the creativity that leads to new invention after all.

5. If you think you are not ready to handle the potential mess with water color (yes, water may spills, he may have accidentally painted onto your sofa etc), here is an alternative to introducing water color to your little ones, read on here for the shortcut method I found.


More Tips!
Want to understand more about color mixing theory? The chart below gives a good reference guide. Every color begins with that 3 prime colors in the center...

Color Mixing Chart

Alternatively, I came across this website, artintegrity.wordpress.com which gives good examples only color theory, like the one below..

I don't expect my little boy to became a great artist, nor am I a good artist myself, I just want him to enjoy learning and have the passion to explore new things. I do think that exposing little ones to drawing and playing with colors encourages them to see the world around them with a different view and life may just be a little bit more fun and interesting that way :)


Thanks for reading, have fun!


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.