I've been using Mona Brooks'
Drawing with Children to teach art to the kids. First we covered various exercises in using the elements of shape and analyzing and drawing designs.
One of Josiah's transitional worksheets--moving from just design/elements of shape
to recognizable objects
In the last couple months I've moved onto some of her suggested projects: drawing a stylized lion and then a more realistic bird. She gives some good step-by-step instructions for talking kids through drawing the simplified animal shape, and then I've given them freedom to choose their colors to complete it.
My art students
Josiah has really taken off with his drawing in the last several months. He loves drawing war scenes on his own, usually involving characters modeled after whatever book we're currently reading (
Narnia,
The Green Ember, Robin Hood, etc.) But he seems to have an eye for detail and has latched onto these drawing lessons. He applies the analysis of elements of shape to his independent drawing, and it's fun to see him figure out how to draw a new animal, weapon, or whatever. Often he says, "Mom! I know how to draw rabbits [or bears, ducks, turtles, whatever]! Look, I do a circle here, little lines for whiskers, curved lines up for the ears, eyes go here . . ." etc. He even started drawing foreshortened circles for moats around castles--without any instruction or suggestion.
While he's an eager learner, he likes to jump ahead of our lesson steps when we're doing our "formal" art lesson time. He doesn't like to wait around for his sisters. Sometimes he also gets a little sloppy or inserts extra items that don't really fit the scene.
Josiah and Lydia
Lydia loves to do the drawing lessons, too, and has surprised me with her aptitude and good work. She is sometimes careless in handling her markers, though, and makes accidental swipes on her paper that cause much consternation. I've shown her how we can remedy mistakes like that by adding landscape details--tree branches, flowers, and such--or coloring over a small error. She gets a little too ambitious with her "fixing" sometimes, though, and ends up with a plethora of twigs all over the paper!
Lydia's drawing moods
While Lydia gets frustrated with her perceived inability at times--or with mistakes--she generally plugs away at following directions and has produced some nice drawings because of her perseverance. She also likes drawing independently (what Mona Brooks calls "symbolic drawings"--stick figures, mostly, that narrate a story), but is not as avid a drawer as Josiah.
Lydia's first completed drawing project: Leo the Lion
Josiah made multiple lion drawings after our initial lesson on Leo and ended up with a good one of a lion in a tree. He then wanted one on the ground, too--and he wanted it to look more realistic. So I looked up a picture of a lion online and stepped them through a shorter lesson to draw that. Lydia joined in as well, but Abby had given up in despair at a couple attempts at the original lion's eyes.
Abby has been my most challenging art student. She's perfectionistic but not as coordinated as the other two. (Where they naturally hold their pencil/marker properly, she still consistently grips it as a shovel.) She often falls apart when the lines she makes on paper don't match up with what she envisions. It's been a challenge to get her to even try--to attempt to follow directions without giving up on the second or third step. We've had lots of drama and tragedy: tears, drool, frustrated scribbling--the works. I've had to excuse her from the drawing lesson to look at books or play by herself a few times, because each step reignited the meltdown.
Abby
Lydia's second lion drawing
Our second project was birds. I love how all three kids' drawings turned out! Abby struggled and had to spend some time away from the drawing table, but she did finish a bird drawing and was mostly happy with it. I think she did a great job.
Lydia's parrot
Abby did two birds!
We branched out from the book's scripted lessons and chose a monkey as our most recent
drawing, with mixed results. I still followed Brooks' basic steps
(starting with the eyes, moving out and paying attention to elements of
shape, giving step-by-step instructions verbally) as I outlined the
monkey on the whiteboard and the kids followed along. I should have chosen a better monkey model, and my demonstration on the whiteboard didn't exactly look good.
This was the first full lesson Abby completed without a meltdown; thus it was a real success in that sense! She and I discussed the lesson and the temptations that would beset her during it. We talked about saying "no" to tantrums and meltdowns, persevering even when she didn't like the look of a dot or line she made, etc. I stressed that she didn't have to like everything she drew, that we can often remedy mistakes, and that she'll only get better with practice. Anyway, she worked hard at self-control and was very pleased with her finished product (even though her monkey is perhaps a bit more porcine than primate).
Proud Abby
Lydia with her monkey holding a banana
Josiah trying to look like his monkey
Josiah's monkey (he's holding a banana with his dangling foot)
Abby's partially colored creature (it ended up being almost entirely pink)
I plan to continue using
Drawing with Children to guide my art instruction this year and next. I really appreciate Brooks' method of training one's eye to see any subject in terms of the elements of shape. This approach has helped my kids gain confidence that they
can draw just about any subject, and it has helped hone their observation and drawing skills. I also think the practice sheets (and ideas for producing your own) are worthwhile. Brooks' simplified line drawings of birds and other suggested projects helped me in demonstrating and teaching, and she outlines a good script for step-by-step instruction. Her inclusion of sample student drawings is helpful, but she includes an awful lot of them. She's also a bit wordy, spends a lot of time discussing her theory of teaching art, and doesn't organize the actual lesson parts in an easy-to-use manner. I wish she had more practice worksheets and step-by-step project drawings, as well as more (and more orderly) instruction on techniques.
I think I'll be supplementing this drawing book with others. I hope to purchase
Drawing Textbook and may look into others. Eventually I'd like to branch out beyond drawing to painting and other mediums with the kids--we'll see when I work up the courage to do so! Meanwhile, at least we've made some headway with art.
