Drawing, Part 2: More Drawing Games

What do adults remember most fondly about childhood "free art" time? 

Crafting? 
Easel painting? 
Modeling with clay? 
Watercolor?


What about drawing whatever you want, whenever you want? 

Free drawing, sketching, doodling, drawing to one's heart's content: these activities are the most fondly remembered type of choice-based art that adults did as children.

I believe children NEED to draw, especially when they are not yet able to fully express themselves verbally or through the written word. 

It is our job as parents and teachers to encourage the art of child-led drawing and to celebrate our children's drawing efforts.


In this class, we played a simple drawing game. 

Young artists were asked to choose a category and draw as many things within that category as they could think of. 

They were not taught how to draw the items; that was left up to them. 

Some chose to think of as many real objects as they could within a category, such as animals or insects. 

Others challenged themselves to think of as many types of an imaginary object as possible, like unicorns!

Some of the children titled their work or labeled their objects, and others left it up to the viewer to figure it out.


Interestingly, although some had more or less advanced drawing skills than others, no one seemed to notice. 

Their sole priority was focusing on finding solutions for and developing their own drawings. 

When finished, several of our young artists immediately started another drawing using a new self-chosen category. 

We have done a similar drawing project in the past. This time we all drew animals; sometimes from memory, and sometimes using visual resources if needed.

Drawing, Part 1: Drawing Games

There are two kinds of "child art." One is school art that reflects teacher-directed ideas, subjects, and projects. The other is spontaneous art, which is created at will in a child's spare time and in his own style. 


Often these drawings go unnoticed, ignored, or are dismissed. Yet, according to Teaching Children to Draw, a Guide for Teachers and Parents, by Marjorie and Brent Wilson, a child's spontaneous work may be far more important to a child's development. Personal drawings allow a child to describe her world and her place within it while developing a fundamental skill. 

Our goal is to integrate spontaneous art into our classes and projects; so this month we have been focusing on spontaneous drawing skills beginning with a variety of fun drawing games:

Game 1 is a collaborative drawing game. Each person starts a drawing with a simple shape. Then he passes it to the left and his neighbor adds something to the drawing. 

The drawings continue around the table until they reach the original artist, who completes and names the artwork.  






This game works best for a group of three to six artists. Our artists ranged in age from 4 to 14. 





These examples resulted in a cute little insect, a strange fish, an angry snowman, a furry kitten, a kite creature, and (?)

Game 2 is a tandem drawing game for two artists. Start by folding the drawing paper in half. Using markers, one person draws while the other draws the same thing simultaneously as though s/he knows what the first drawer is about to draw next.

These are samples of what our young artists were able to do. Almost exact duplicates - WOW!

Game 3 is also a tandem drawing game. This time, both drawers place their markers somewhere on the center fold, points touching. They then attempt to draw a duplicate mirror image of what their partner is drawing, resulting in a cool symmetrical design!

Game 4 is a shadow-drawing game. Wrinkle up a few sheets of paper and place one on each sheet of drawing paper. Set up a spotlight so that the wads of paper  project shadows onto the paper and draw around the shapes. Remove the paper wad and decide what the shadow shape looks like to you, then fill in the details. You might see faces, animals, ghosts, demons, or (???) 

Game 5 is a collaborative game for three artists. Start by folding a piece of paper into three equal sections so that only the top section shows. Now drawer one draws a head of some kind on this section. The he folds it so that only the center section shows and drawer two fills in a body. Finally he folds it again and drawer three draws the feet (or bottom) of the creature.

Joseph's Drawing Game involves following the directions on drawing cards that they "draw" from a pile. Artists must draw the characters, backgrounds, situations, and genre as instructed. These are a few examples of some of the results!

The kids absolutely loved these drawing games! I hope they will continue to draw on their own with the same richness and creativity demonstrated in these wonderful drawings.

Oil Pastel Animal Drawings

Our open studio art class created animal drawings in oil pastel.

This is an adult studio class, which is also open to teens.

The focus of this project is to learn oil pastel techniques - blending, layering, creating textures, and mixing colors to match those in the model. So we removed the stress of freehand drawing by selecting a photo of an animal that would fit well in a 9 x 12 format and using tracing paper.





Then, using black carbon paper, we transferred the basic image to a piece of black sulphite paper. 








Then we assembled our palette of colors to match those in the animal and filled in the colors while carefully observing our animal photo model. 






We used a piece of scrap paper to experiment with various types of marks and to practice blending certain hues to create a particular needed color.

    

Backyard Birds

We can tell that spring is around the corner because our favorite backyard birds are returning!

Many of us have noticed flocks of red-breasted robins in our yards, which is a very good sign.





Our focus this month is improving drawing and sketching skills - so, with oil pastels, we drew life-sized backyard birds on construction paper, adding lots of  details and realistic colors. 









Then we cut them out and some artists added a few fuzzy feathers. 







We then created a background that included a tree limb for our bird to perch on. 







Our 2-hour class made a 3-D tree using collage, while our shorter class drew the background in with oil pastel on blue or grey sulphite paper. Then we glued the bird onto the limb, some choosing to use 3 D-O's to give the bird a more dimensional look, and some adding musical notes for their singing birds!

These artists ranged in age from 6 to 14 year old.