How to Teach Drawing to Children
Children love capturing their world in drawings. A young child's desire to draw well demonstrates her interest in accurately capturing her world-view. Fine motor skills, attention span and spacial sensitivity all affect a child's drawing ability and receptiveness to formal instruction. Just like any other skill, drawing requires technique and practice. To a budding artist, identifying these tools makes drawing well an achievable goal instead of an innate talent.
Instructions
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1
Choose a simple object with clean, obvious lines, such as a box or cube. Unlike a curved, atypical shape, like a flower or human face, identifying the dimensions and proportions of a box is easier for a beginning student.
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2
Discuss with the child the box's most obvious physical features. Ask him to describe the distance between two points on the box in relation to the furthest corner. Encourage him to identify only the lines and points that he sees, not ones he knows are in back or underneath.
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3
Ask the child to draw the box one line at a time. Have her pause after each line and ask what she knows about that line. What's the angle of the line? Is it parallel or perpendicular to any other lines? How far apart is the line from the starting point or parallel line? These questions encourage awareness of spacial relationships and proportions.
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4
Create bold shadows and shading dimensions by shining a desk lamp on the box from a side angle. Ask the child to describe the shadows and brightness of light, including the patterns of darkness around the corners and the shadow size.
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5
Ask the child to shade his drawing of the box exactly as he sees it using delicate pencil strokes.
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6
Repeat steps one through five using an object with equal, curved lines such as a baseball or mug before attempting anything with irregular dimensions, like a stuffed animal or jewelry.
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Tips & Warnings
Avoid unnecessary frustration by encouraging the child to use soft pencil strokes that erase easily, even when shading.
Encourage proper posture and wrist position in older children by providing a drawing board or slanted surface for drawing.
Never draw on a student's work with your own pencil or pen as this enforces the misconception that drawing well is an innate skill rather than something that requires studying and practice.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Creatas/Getty Images
