Kids Art: Conversations About Drawing

Immy (3 1/2 years): I want to draw this flower in my field journal.

Me: Okay then.

Immy: But I can’t. Will you draw it for me?

Me: I think you can. Let’s look at the shapes of the flower. I can see circles in this flower and you know how to draw circles. What shape can you see in the centre of this flower?

Immy: A circle.

Me: You could try drawing a circle for the centre. (Immy draws the spiral looking circle as the centre.) Now look at the petals, they look a bit round around the outside, like circles too. Like lots of circles all around the outside. (Immy draws circle shaped petals).

Me: Now what sort of shape do you think you need for this stem? ~ Sorry, you can see the stem in this photo but our sample flower has a short, straight brown stem. (Immy adds a straight line for the stem on her drawing).

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Helping a child to consider an object as a series of simple, familiar shapes is one way of helping them overcome the idea that they ‘can’t do it’ when drawing. Taking the time to talk them through this process helps them to develop confidence in their creativity, they CAN do it!

Of course, now we see flower motifs appearing everywhere…

Kids art drawing

Including originals signed by the artist!

Kids art drawing

And those that form part of colourful landscapes.

I could look at children’s drawings all day, I love how they change, evolving over time!  What drawing challenges have your children conquered recently?

Looking for more ideas for encouraging reluctant artists or children who lack confidence in their art making? Look no further then Time to Create: Hands On Explorations in Process Art for Young Children.

Time to Create:Hands On Exploraitons in Process Art by Christie Burnett

 

7 Comments

  1. Nice post Christie. I think I need it for me! My husband is a “proper” artist and me – well, let’s just say I’m good with words. Our little boy loves to scribble, hasn’t quite got to drawing yet, but loves to ask us to draw things for him – especially moons and stars. Unfortunately I have only about a 75% success rate with drawing moons – the rest of the time he shakes his head and tells me they are bananas. (I felt much better when my mother confessed he did the same to her recently – obviously my drawing inadequacies are genetic!). I will take your advice from this post to help myself!

    1. I had a mama friend say the same thing to me about their drawing recently. I reminded her to always look at/think about the shapes and she says this has helped her immensely. I also think it is important for children to see that even common objects can be seen and drawn differently every time. Not sure if you saw this post from last year – https://childhood101.com/2010/10/a-tree-by-any-other-name/

      1. A good lesson for me. Since I’m the one who spends more time with our little boy this kind of stuff is very valuable to me – loved your tree post too – and I will start drawing all different kinds of moons and stars for him from tomorrow!

  2. That’s the way Christie! Sitting down with our children, makign a drawing understandable to them. Love it, will share it on twitter.
    Angelique

  3. Thanks for sharing this, Christie! What a great example of responding to a child’s request for help with drawing (which happens often with preschool-age kids). If you would have just done it for her, you would have met Immy’s immediate, surface need for a “perfect” representation and you could have felt good about being the helper. Instead you thought about Immy’s deeper need to feel capable, and you gave just enough support and encouragement for her to apply what she did know how to do (draw shapes) to something she didn’t know how to do. She not only had a picture she was pleased with but she also gained self-confidence. The difference was in your ability to see what the deeper goal was. Awesome!! I’m going to share this liberally, Christie – thanks!!

  4. The Munchkin actually did an art project at home today – admittedly organised by his friend’s mum as a group project!

    I love how you’ve broken down the elements into something simple and achievable – I sometimes wonder if the reason he doesn’t draw much is that he is so aware of every little detail that it seems too overwhelming to try to reproduce it… I’ve tended to just let him tell the story of his drawings without caring at all whether they look like anything in particular. Of course, considering he’s usually drawing some many legged sea monster alien or something, they don’t have to look like anything we’d identify!

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