My brother asked me recently to spend a little while teaching his older daughter how to paint. She is very interested in art, and got a treasure-trove of art supplies for her birthday - one of those studio-in-a-box sets, with 3 kinds of paint and 2 kinds of pastels and 3 kinds of pencils, and brushes, palettes, an easel, and so on. Since there is no real arts education on school anymore, and I have acquired a few skills over the years, I was recruited to be a teacher for a day.
To prepare for the lesson, I looked for books to give ideas in teaching a few art basics to kids. What I found was disappointing and disheartening. It seems that a good 99% of kids' art-instruction books consist of "Draw Manga" and "Draw Cartoons" and "Draw Fairies and Dragons". The other 1%... well, I never found the other 1%. I got a used copy of First Steps: Drawing and Sketching, by Cathy Johnson, published by North Light Books. It is an excellent book, but assumes a level of skill, even for a beginner, that is way over a 9-year-old's head.
What to do? I want to get Caitlin to both exercise her imagination and learn observational skills, and learn how to use her supplies to the best advantage - that being giving her inspiration, learning and fun. Where is the book that tells how to do this? I don't think the best way to learn how to draw is by copying cartoon characters out of a book.
Children are smarter than they are given credit for. Why must their first real instruction in fine arts be to copy simple line drawings? Older beginning art students are given lessons in fundamentals such as observation and sketching. Why shouldn't children be given the same initiation into art?
One thing an artist must have is a long attention span and a lot of self-discipline, and as these things are not exactly any child's strong point, these have to be learned and practiced along with art techniques. I want to come up with something that is neither childish nor complicated - something that will inspire her, and make her want to spend the time an energy learning, but nothing daunting that will lead to discouragement and disenchantment with art. Like many children, Caitlin has a full schedule - school, lessons, various "camps", play-dates and sleepovers galore. She has little time to devote to something as solitary and disciplined as art.
So, I am writing an art instruction "book" for Caitlin. I start off with "What Is Art?", and set out some basic rules, including "be patient" and "have fun". I tell about different media, and materials, and tools, and how to care for equipment such as brushes. I briefly describe some basic color theory, and want to write a page or two on simple perspective.
I will next tell about how to observe. Every kid wants to draw an apple as a red circle with a stem on top, every tree as a green cloud full of red apples on a straight brown trunk, every bird as a "M" in the sky. Clouds - white cotton balls. Water - always blue. While she was here, I gave Caitlin an apple to draw, and she promptly drew a circle with a stem - despite the actual apple not looking like that. So, I want to tell her that learning to observe - learning to really see - is the most important thing. Does the apple have a stem, or not? Is it round, or knobby? Does it have bruises or scars? I want to instruct her to spend a fair bit of time looking at what she wants to draw before she sets pencil to paper, and then learn how to draw what she sees.
I want to then tell about, describe and demonstrate some simple techniques for using basic media - drawing with pencil, making a watercolor painting, making a drawing with pastels, oil pastels, colored pencils, etc. For subjects I will use common, easy-to-draw things like a coffee mug, a banana, a nectarine. I'll make the drawings and paintings, photographing each step as I describe it so she will be able to see how I depict shadows, layer colors, etc.
Later on, when she has a better grip on basic drawing and watercolor painting, I will help her explore acrylic painting, and then oil painting. I want to do these things in steps not only out of concern for her - I don't want her to be overloaded - but out of concern for her parent's carpeting. A palette full of paint, when dropped, will fall wet-side-down, of course, and I am envisioning a lovely, permanent, abstract pattern of many colors of acrylic paints on their pale-beige carpet. Yikes!
The book won't be too much of a reach for a kid, I don't think. I use simple language, but don't talk down to her and patronize her; kids know when they're being patronized, and appreciate respect, not just effusive praise. When an adult hunkers down and says, "Oh my, what a GOOD PAINTING! Aren't you WONDERFUL!", a child looks askance (I know I did, when I was a kid). A quieter, more sincere praise is more appreciated.
Once she has a grip on draftsmanship, then she can take off on flights of fancy. No matter what kind of art she grows into, she will have a grounding in some essential skills. As she grows up, and her ideas and thoughts expand and mature with experience, she will have basics - drafting, color theory, perspective, and knowing how each type of media behaves. Even if she doesn't choose to go into art, she will have this creative outlet as a pastime, a way to relax, express herself. That's all I want for her - to know about and appreciate the process of creating artwork, so she will have a broader understanding of this essential part of human nature.
