No, not that one!

I cannot begin to explain to you the amount of paint my students waste. No, this is not one of my students- I teach middle and high school- but it might as well be. I think the older students waste MORE than the little ones. Maybe it's because they have access to so many supplies. Next year I am considering locking up everything except for Blickrylic (read: cheapcrylic) red, blue, and yellow paint and one paintbrush. ONE.

Case in point- this morning. The students have been printmaking for the past two weeks, and now they are turning their prints into an abstract collage. One of the requirements is they draw or paint into their prints. I was hoping for this:

I am getting more like this:Even though the work is similar, this work is not one of my students'. It's work from a KINDERGARTNER.

Anyway, some students are incorporating handprints into the collage. Fine. This morning one student asked me where she could find the paint. Too lazy to get up and unlock the Blickrylic (why do I have that locked?) I told her to just use the smaller tubes of paint found in cabinets 7 and 8.

I should stop here and state that I was using the term "smaller tubes" as compared to the large bottles of Blickrylic. She misunderstood.

A few moments later I look over and she is squirting half a tube of watercolor onto her hands. Half a tube! I yell out, "NO! Not that one!" but it's too late. It's already all over her hands. She stamps them on her page and then proceeds to rinse the rest down the drain. I am not exaggerating when I say that the amount of paint she rinsed off could have been used on 25 paintings. At least.

But not all is lost. After I showed her the correct paint to use, she was more conservative. She squirted the paint onto her paintbrush from the tube instead of directly on her work like half of her classmates.

These are the same students who are furious when someone doesn't recycle.

Can we please try to conserve? I am still using the oils I purchased and used through college... over 10 years ago!!!