Drawing Out the Illustrator in Your Child
May-June 1993 Homeschooling Today Magazine - Issue 6 - All Rights Reserved
Do your children enjoy drawing or do they need to be encouraged to draw? Do they make illustrations to accompany some of their written work or favorite stories they have read? Perhaps they have written a poem or story, or maybe they have written a paragraph or sentence. An illustration can add a special touch to your children's writing. Observations skills are strengthened as they seek to make their pictures relate to their written words.
Some children are easily frustrated when they try to draw. Generally, young children take great pleasure in drawing, but as they get older they become critical of their own efforts and often give up drawing all together. If your children are apprehensive about drawing, be sure to give them lots of encouragement.
Children, and adults too, do not need to draw well to enjoy drawing. Drawing, like any other skill, is improved with practice. Some will naturally have more abilities than others, but all can benefit from some simple suggestions.
Most of what we learn comes through observation. Just as we can observe the writing styles of various authors, by copying or dictating from their works, we can learn much about illustrating by observing styles of various artists. Spend some time browsing through library books and discuss what is and what isn't appealing about the illustrations.
Do the illustrations capture the atmosphere that the author displays through his words? My children have often pointed out inconsistencies between the stories and illustrations in various books we have read. I sometimes wonder if certain illustrators really read the books they are illustrating. Your children can even trace some of the illustrations in order to get a feel for shape and composition. However, the children's final illustrations which are to accompany a piece of written work should be original.
Rather than trying to draw an entire scene, your children can zero in on a particular portion of a scene and enlarge it. To get a better understanding of what I mean, try the following exercise. Provide your children with a simple picture, preferably a simple line drawing and have them look at it or draw it. Then have them place a paper frame around an interesting portion of the picture and draw only the part within the frame. Encourage them to make that drawing as large as the paper will allow. Pictures are interesting when a portion of the scene runs off the page. A small picture in the middle of a sea of white is dull and lifeless.
It is generally easier to draw large illustrations than to draw small illustrations, just as it is easier to write large letters than to write small letters. This is why children use large lined paper at the kindergarten and first grade levels.
Drawing people often presents difficulties which can be easily overcome by applying a few basic drawing principles. A common mistake in drawing faces is to place the eyes too high on the head. Basically, the eyes should be at the center of the head. If you measure your hand from your chin to the inside corner of your eye, you will find it is almost equal to the distance from the inside corner of your eye to the top of your head. Hairstyles may elevate the appearance of the height of the head even more.
Another common error in drawing people is to give them skinny necks and undersized feet and hands. Ears are often misplaced; they should be parallel to the nose. Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes includes helpful tips on drawing people. The serious art student will benefit from information given in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards.
I'd like to share another drawing technique that you may find useful. Have your children select a picture form a magazine, photo album, or book. Instruct them to trace this picture. (You may need tracing paper for this exercise.) Then have your children use their tracings as models from which to copy. This technique reduces a photograph or complicated drawing to a line drawing, making it much simpler to duplicate. Tracing enables your children to break a picture into recognizable shapes that are combined to form a desired likeness.
Naturally, when a picture is copied, the resulting image is never exactly like the original picture. This inexact image is desirable because it produces a new image which reflects the style of the aspiring young artist-your child.
Encourage your children to experiment with a variety of artistic styles. If you have a child who likes to draw minute details, do not discourage him from doing this unless you think his illustrations will be improved by enlarging the pictures. Different people prefer different styles. Some children will draw eagerly and need few suggestions from you, but others may benefit from some simple recommendations.
Prompt your children to experiment with different drawing methods and to develop some of their own. For example, they may choose to draw a picture as though viewed through a window or picture frame, or as though viewed from the top of a tree. It is this type of creativity that gives an illustration personality.
Decorative borders surrounding your children's written work add a delightful effect. An exceptional library book that illustrates the use of creative borders is, The Land of Nod and Other Poems for Children by Robert Louis Stevenson, selected and illustrated by Michael Hague. This book is inspiring for its illustrations as well as its poems. I particularly like the illustration accompanying the poem, "Whole Duty of Children," which consists of a drawing of a spoon, fork, and knife, repeated as a border around the entire page.
Stencils made by the children can be used to produce appealing borders. Check the library for books on stenciling. The children may actually make stencils or use ideas given to create drawings that resemble stencils. These make attractive borders. Some library books that I located in the fine arts section of my public library are Country Stenciling, published by Better Homes and Gardens, and Authentic Victorian Stencil Designs, published by Dover publications.
Other library books utilizing decorative borders are An Old Fashioned ABC Book and An Old Fashioned 1-2-3 Book by Elizabeth Allen Ashton, with illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863 - 1935). The illustrations are delightful, as well as the borders surrounding the text. You will find other books too that utilize creative borders.
Sometimes your children will want to draw specific items which they cannot visualize. Making a large selection of library books available for them to scan will be advantageous. You may find an illustrated dictionary to be a terrific resource as well. It is also helpful to maintain a picture file comprised of birthday cards, calendars, simple pictures from coloring books, magazine photographs, and so on. Artistic inspiration can be found through observing fine art prints, too.
Animals by Lee James, Drawing From Nature by Jim Arnosky, Ed Emberly drawing books, and other books geared to drawing a variety of subject matter will also benefit your children. Of course, if you have real objects to assist your children in their drawings, use them.
Be cautious not to criticize your children's drawing, but offer loving suggestions with the understanding that you want them to do the best job they can. If your child draws a terrific illustration and he suddenly mars it with unwanted lines or a big blob of color, do not allow him to destroy the picture. Sometimes mistakes can be remedied by coloring in unwanted lines with solid color. This can produce a bold effect that is better than the original drawing. Often a child can trace a portion of a picture that he likes and leave out the "mistake." Keep the illustrations your child insists on throwing out if there is a possibility of using parts of them later.
As your children develop illustrations to accompany selections from their written work or a story or poem they have read, you can encourage them to experiment with various media. They may choose colored markers, pencils, watercolors, colored pencils, or ink. Crayons and pastels produce a nice texture, but they can also be difficult to preserve. To be sure that they don't rub off on your children's written portion of their work, a spray fixative should be applied. Generally, colored markers are the easiest to work with and produce the clearest illustrations.
You may find it helpful to keep certain art materials put away for special projects to ensure their longevity. It's also important that your children have art materials that they can use freely on a daily basis. This includes last year's "good" set of colored markers or colored pencils. When your children are making illustrations that they have worked on very diligently, it is important that they have quality materials with which to complete them.
As your children continue to write and illustrate their written work, they may be inspired to write and illustrate an entire book of their own. Your children can be author/illustrators and produce memorable books that will be treasured for a lifetime.
This article was taken from the May/June 1993 issue of Homeschooling Today magazine. A limited number of back issues are still available!
If you have found value in this article, consider subscribing to Homeschooling Today® magazine. We are only able to offer resources like this through support from our subscribers. Your subscription will bring a year's worth of ready-made lessons, vital homeschooling information, and like-minded encouragement right to your doorstep!
Copyright ©1992-2008 Homeschooling Today Magazine - PO Box 244 - Abingdon, VA 24212 - All rights reserved Duplication of this article without written permission is prohibited.