How I Teach Drawing at Home

Why Should I Teach Drawing?

Drawing is a skill-based subject that allows a person to express their ideas to other, just like writing and math. It is an important skill for everyone to learn (at least the basics) because at some point in our lives we need to visually express our ideas to others. As I was reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain I learned that drawing requires spacial awareness and perception, which the right side of the brain is responsible for. When people strengthen both sides of the brain they are quite literally smarter and more creative. Language requires the left side of brain, drawing requires the right side. Although writing, reading and math may use parts from both sides of the brain, the right side is more dominant when drawing and creating art. This is such an important idea for us as teachers and parents. When a child’s interest is waning during math (or reading, or writing), those parts of the brain are becoming exhuasted. They need a break. Just like one set of muscles get tired from doing one exercise. Drawing and art gives your brain that break it needs. I like to do some type of drawing in the middle of our school day, just to break things up. Not only is beneficial to other subjects (by refreshing the brain), it is in itself an extremely useful skill to learn.

Need some more reasons to add drawing to your day? Drawing (and art in general) helps you sort out your emotions and think more positively. Engaging in art triggers the reward center of the brain, which means you get a natural high. Creating art lowers stress and anxiety. Researchers found that after engaging in art for 30 minutes, participants learned cortisol levels decreased significantly. When you engage in art you focus deeply, which is also called being in a “flow” state. Your sense of time is gone and you become lost in your work.

Scope and Sequence

What Do I Teach?

After doing an immense amount of research into how Charlotte Mason taught drawing I faithfully embarked into applying her methods with my own boys. Unfortunately, they didn’t work as well as I’d hope. She strongly suggested to NOT start with pencil, but rather use brush drawing (pretty much watercolors). My boys HATED it. They complained vehemently with every lesson, and were so discouraged when their work didn’t turn out well. Instead of brush drawing we use pencils, charcoal, and markers. I started another journey into current research on how the brain works and how to teach drawing. Here’s a more detailed look at how I’ve taught drawing to all three of my boys, stage-by-stage:

Early Years (Scribbling)

Between the ages of two and four years old children begin scribbling. They hold the entire crayon in their hand and use whole-arm movements to scribble. At first they are random marks as they gain control and enjoy the sensory experience. After a while they learn to control their movements and the scribbles are more controlled and intentional. Provide lots of butcher paper (or other large papers), paints, chunky crayons, and chalkboard/chalk to practice emerging skills.

The first developmental art stage children go through is called Scribbling. This stage usually occurs between the ages of two and four years. During this time I give them lots of opportunities for whole-arm drawing, like on a chalkboard or with butcher paper. Giving children a bucket of water and paintbrush and letting them “paint” the house is also a fun activity.

Four to Seven Years Old (Preschematic)

Creative Form Drawing: Workbook 1 by Angela Lord

Between the age of four and seven children gain the ability to copy shapes, like a square and triangle. You’ll notice your child turning their paper or walking around their art. They enjoy simple drawings of people and objects. They may prefer a particular color and use only that color for all drawings. Continue to provide lots of exploratory play and experimentation during this stage. Clay should be an integral part of this stage (and the next) as it gives the child concrete, first-hand experience with shape and texture. Make balls and ropes with clay and use those as a base for sculptures.

What to Teach: Formal drawing lessons may start during this stage (I start in first grade). Begin with chalk drawing on a chalkboard (using the whole arm to draw basic shapes) or a large butcher paper with chunky crayons, paints, or pencils. My favorite colored pencils are from IKEA. I also do exploratory, process-oriented watercolor lessons, like wet-on-wet painting.

Six to Nine Years Old (Schematic)

Creative Form Drawing: Workbook 1 by Angela Lord

Drawing With Children by Mona Brooks

Children will start formal drawing lessons at this stage, as they will be between 7-9 years old. Their drawing will reflect activities from their daily lives, and instead of being realistic, they are more schematic (meaning representative). They are ready to learn how to draw skylines, baselines, and basic overlapping of shapes. Their drawings will have “plane elevation” which simply means they draw the side of an object, like a table with fruit on top versus drawing it at an angle. You’ll also see drawings with “x-ray” view (like a house cut in half with a view of rooms). I’ve noticed my own boys are not ready for color mixing, shading, or 3D shapes yet. This is normal. You may have a child that can comprehend the idea of 3D shapes, but most will not yet. Instead, drawing lessons should consist of getting control of their pencil or brush, and learning how to look at an object and see the basic shapes and lines and then draw that on paper. Lessons may also include how to overlap objects to change the view. Utilize clay modelling lessons to instill a concrete idea of shape and texture. They will carry this knowledge into drawing those same objects.

What to Teach: practice drawing basic lines and shapes from Creative Form Drawing (CFD). I review past lessons from CFD as a warm up. We do lessons from Drawing With Children, specifically the idea that object, person, animal is made up of basic shapes. We also work on overlapping and putting together a drawing.

Nine to Twelve Years Old (Precise)

Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks

Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntire

Between 9 -12 years old your child will become more advanced in creating overlapping objects. They pay more attention to details and want their pictures to look more realistic. As a result of this awareness they may become more sensitive to their drawings and prefer not to show others. They will have a greater desire to gain advanced knowledge and skills. Your child may still draw objects from one angle, but effort will be focused more on adding details that make objects look more realistic. Nature journaling is a perfect place for them to practice these skills without feeling pressure to perform.

What to Teach: At this age I wrap up the lessons in Creative Form Drawing and Drawing with Children. They should have a basic idea of perspective, shading, and how to draw the human form. Next, we begin the Drawing Textbook. By this point they should have a good handle on their pencil and can create straight lines, evenly spaced lines, as well as curves and ellipses. We still have two drawing lessons a week, and complete one lesson from the Drawing Textbook during that week. Besides the Drawing Textbook lesson I ask my boys to pick a scene from history or literature and we work through how to draw it on the chalkboard, step-by-step using principles we’ve learned. Ideally this happens at least once a week, but many times we run out of time and they draw scenes or nature journal on their own.

Twelve to Fourteen (Perceptive)

After your child is familiar with the above principles, try introducing watercolor and brush drawing. You can introduce it earlier than this age, but I’ve found my boys didn’t respond well to it.

When your child is in Form 2, they will developmentally reach a point where they want their drawings to look less cartoon-ish and more realistic. They may become more invested in their nature journal, and want their drawings to be more representative. This is an excellent time to follow their interests (horses, machines, dragons, etc); go over the basic principles again as well as find books/classes that teach how to sketch realistic drawings of those subjects. There are many of these books available at the library and art stores. It is also a good time to start brush drawing lessons in the afternoon, if your child wasn’t ready for it in Form 1.

Remember to meet your child where they’re at–if they are intimidated or frustrated by watercolor or other painting, save it for later. Focus on the basics and make sure you go line-upon-line and precept-upon-precept.

The final stage (age 12-14) is when children are developmentally ready for advanced concepts, like shading and perception. Although they may have been capable at an earlier age, it is always wise to wait if you sense that your child is frustrated or does not understand. They simply need more time and practice with previous concepts. In this stage they may also accentuate sexual/gender features in their drawings, like muscles and breasts. This is a reflection of the bodily change they will be going through and is completely normal.

How Do I Teach It?

We have drawing lessons two days a week, Monday and Wednesday. But I encourage them to draw everyday as part of a narration or just for fun.

Our lessons usually look like this:

Warm up (reviewing techniques from Creative Form Drawing)
Concept/Technique (from Drawing With Children or Drawing Textbook)
Project —
We use previous skills learned to draw scene from history or literature (on Monday), or an object for nature journal (on Wednesday)

I remember reading about a university professor who divided one of his photography classes into two groups; one group was told they would be graded on the quantity of pictures they took. In order to get an A grade they would have to take 100 pictures, 90 pictures to get a B, and so on. The second group was told they would be graded on the quality of their pictures, they were only required to take one excellent picture. At the end of the semester the professor discovered that the group graded on quantity contained the best photographs. He decided that the reasons the quantity group produced higher quality work were 1) they were not afraid to make mistakes; 2) there was no pressure to perform well, just take a lot of pictures; and 3) by taking lots of pictures they practiced and honed their photography skills.

Photography, like the other art forms, requires a lot of practice and little or no pressure to perform a certain way. When these conditions are met, creativity can flourish and skills are polished. While your child is doing drawing lessons, give them lots of time to experiment and do not pressure them to “get better” or make higher quality artwork. Instead, encourage them draw something every single day. If your child is competitive, challenge them to draw 100 pictures of whatever they want by the end of the year, or even term.

Art is beneficial no matter what the product looks like, it’s about the process not the product. So resist the urge to correct or give suggestions. There are methods/techniques to get a certain effect, but there is no wrong or right way to make art, so do not tell your child they are doing it wrong. When a child feels accepted and free to explore without making “mistakes” or doing it the “wrong way” they will blossom.