Your Kids can produce Creative Drawings

Drawing is the fundamental basis of all art forms including painting. Drawing an object lets us understand it, and learn about it’s structure. We can understand how light falls upon it and plays tricks with our perception. Picasso once said, ‘ I do not paint what I see I paint what I know.’ ‘Knowing’ an object well allows us to draw it in a way that might not look like a photographic representation. The drawing could perhaps be more abstracted, more creative, yet still retaining the fundamental essence of what that object is.

If you want to be a little more creative with the drawing your children produce, or want to push their drawing towards a more individual, abstracted response, why not try a one of these ideas.

Try this Creative Idea

Start by taking an object, maybe an interesting vase, and get the children to make a quick large sketch of it on A3 paper. Now change the position of the vase so their view point changes and get them to draw it again. This time get them to draw it directly on top of the previous drawing. Do this a number of times from different angles. How extreme you want to make the viewing angle is up to you – experiment.

After the children have completed say five sketches, get them to look at the mass of lines they have drawn. Ask them to select a few lines and to make these lines bolder. The children should end up with a creative drawing that sums up the experience of moving around the object. They will see the object from all angles, in its full glory. The drawing could also be a basis for an abstract painting.

Variations on a Theme

Another interesting idea is a variation on the idea above. Give the children an object they are not familiar with and get them to hold it behind their backs – they are not allowed to look at it. Ask the children to hold their pencil on a sheet of paper and to close your eyes. Don’t allow them to draw yet, ask them to roll the object around in your fingers. Once familiar with the object – ask them to draw what they feel with their eyes closed. This idea is all about how the brain visualises purely tactile messages into a visual image. It may be better to try this with older children Done properly, this great idea can produce some very interesting results. Be open minded about the result and try lots of objects – experiment.