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Drawing for Children
Drawing after school on Thursdays for open groups but other times are possible for private individual or small groups.
There is currently an ongoing group on Thursdays for 8-14 year olds but I am interested in starting a group for 5 year-7+ year olds which could be scheduled on either Wednesdays/Thursdays or Fridays after school. Please let me know your preferences if you are interested
Before joining a particular group the needs, interests and ability to focus will be taken into account. The younger children will learn the basics alongside and within drawing/ painting as well as making and modelling projects. Children + a real passion to progress can more easily progress to fundaments of observation, line, form etc.
COURSES 10 weeks for 1 hour from w/c 16 Jan 2012 Includes materials/refreshments from £99
TASTERS After school on demand £10
Current timetable will be changed as new groups are formed and times can be adjusted if required.
Let the children draw... Why?
Young children are usually naturally very expresive but by the age of 8, many children stop drawing. They seem to reach a watershed of critical awareness, feel complete dissatisfaction with their work and resist every attempt to engage them in artistic activities. They want but lack the skills to draw ‘realistically’. They quickly succumb to adults' ideas that creative and drawing abilities stem from some rare and mysterious gift which they have not inherited .
I have long refused parents’ requests for drawing classes for young children. I believed that few children under 12 would have the maturity to appreciate the observational skills and techniques which are essential to drawing. At worst I might disrupt vital children's developmental milestones and inhibit those fantastically expressive and imaginative pictures of their inner worlds.
However, against my better judgment, I ran a portrait drawing class for some 6 year olds last summer. I was amazed! It was a lot easier than trying to undo bad adult habits and hang ups! I needed to re-think and do some research.
I now accept that maybe children have a right to be sympathetically helped to learn to learn observation/drawing skills from a young age. In Reggio Emilia schools and nurseries, art and drawing are at the centre of the curriculum and an environment is created to give even the youngest the means to observe, analyse, experience and express their world in a myriad of different ways. Very interesting….
Perhaps the ability to visually communicate is a basic instinct or need. It’s like talking. Nearly all children can competently do both before they go to school.
Although research strongly suggests positive benefits for self esteem, concentration and performance in other subjects, drawing skills are rarely taught in school.
So - Let's help children to discover observational and technical skills.... if possible, before they get dissatisfied with their wonderful schematic child like drawings. We need to help them retain or rebuild their self esteem and keep on drawing.
Can't you be creative without learning to draw?
Correct. In fact, relatively few artists have been taught how but when you are competently taught- it's like having glasses to correct a long term sight problem.
How will you teach/motiavate the children?
I will be combining the principles of Artabugs with the ideas of my beginners' Adult Drawing Courses.
I think learning about observational techniques and the use of materials should be interesting and fun and definitely involve a structured process of discovery in a sympathetic environment
My sessions will involve experiments and exercises which the children will interpret and complete to the best of their interest and ability – whether they are serial experimenters or more careful and cautious perfectionists. Older children [ over 8's] may have great confidence issues but should be to more easily master more complex measuring and perspectives.
There will be no ‘wrong’ ways. There will be no r imitating the teacher's or other artists' work / self help cartoon manuals. This is dull and ultimately counterproductive. It stops any real learning to observe and downgrades the imagination and personal experiences needed to enrich their work.
I will not be enforcing, instructing or correcting. Children will be closely observed and enabled to develop at their own pace and learn in ways that suit them. I will use simple open ended questions to encourage the children to address what they think are problems and find solutions.
Why do you need a rabbit?
You don't but I do! Does anyone have a rabbit?? SERIOUSLY CAN anyone lend one?
What the children draw will be influenced by their interests. Parents may be asked to provide different objects or even lend a sibling whom we could wrap up in tape..
I will be suggesting things they may like to try but they are not required to do anything between classes. Drawing is like learning to play music in many respects. There are lots of different styles and instruments. They all need practice but you have to want to do it... Nobody is going to play Beethoven perfectly after the first lesson—if ever but many people have been put off trying by being forced to.
Please don't stop them using their imagination or doing non observational drawing. They can carry on with earlier styles and find out about new ones at the same time.
Finally please don’t point out what you think are mistakes, judge or over praise. Ask what and how they are doing. Save ££ and get them to teach their siblings.
