Teaching Children How to Draw

22 Feb Teaching Children How to Draw

Breaking Down Drawing

How I Teach Children To Draw

Here at The Craft Corner we never say can’t.

In this video at the bottom of the post, I talk through how I break down drawing to make it much more approachable and less daunting for beginners and children who might lack the confidence in their own art skills.

You can skip straight to watching the video over on our youtube channel here

Often when students come to our classes they will say things like I can’t draw or I’m not good at drawing.

No such thing as bad

First of all, one word that I don’t allow in my classes is, not good or bad, because I don’t actually believe that is true.

I think there’s different levels of skill but I think that everybody is capable of drawing.  Your drawing might not look like somebody who has been drawing for 10 years or 20 years.  It might not even look like the drawing of someone else in the class, but that is art.  No two pieces of artwork are ever going to be the same.  If they were then it would be a forgery.

Break drawing down into easy steps

When I am teaching drawing I think it’s really important to break it down into steps to make it seem more manageable.  

For example when we are drawing a hand – the hand is one of the most complicated parts in the body to draw.  

You need to break it down into steps, you need to look at the overall shape of the hand, see it could be the shape of a mitten. 

Now you’ve simplified a really complicated hand into a really simple mitten shape.  

You are breaking it down for your students so you’re making it much easier to draw and to understand. 

If you understand the steps of what you’re doing you are much more likely to be able to repeat those steps again and again after you finish the class.

Demystify the process

I think by breaking down drawing into steps you demystify it, you make it much easier to do it as a total beginner.

By understanding that everything is made up of simple shapes, like your head can be an oval or maybe even more square or with a rectangular area for the jaw and more pointed area for the chin.

By breaking it down into these steps you are saying actually this isn’t as complicated as we thought it was and really I actually can draw.

Learn More About The Craft Corner

My Job As An Art Teacher Is Not To Give My Students The Answers

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Why I created The Craft Challenge