Drawing and painting skills develop with age, but you can help your kid along by using tips to teach art for kids. There are a number of ideas regarding this out there, but remember that actual talent cannot be taught. At this age your aim is simply to introduce your child to the ideas and concepts surrounding drawing and painting, and for this the use of a printing canvas online is a great choice for this as well.
Teach The Kid How To Hold A Crayon
This is the first basic step in teaching your kid to draw. Usually you will start this at around the age when a child can begin holding a crayon and other small items fairly well. The following steps can be followed when teaching a child how to hold a crayon:
- Before you even begin the ‘lesson’ you need to make sure that the pencils or pens that you have chosen do not have any sharp ends – In case you need new ones, check this fountain pens on sale
- In addition you must only buy those crayons that are child friendly and non toxic. Teach your child that crayons are only for drawing and that they are too dirty to place in your mouth.
- Show them how to hold the crayon y wrapping their fingers around it. Their technique does not need to be perfect, merely passable. Allow them to start scribbling away on the page (and reinforce the idea that paper is the only medium on which crayons can be used).
Teach How To Draw Strokes On Paper
Initially your child will simply scribble at random on the piece of paper. They may not even push hard enough to leave a mark at times. However, when they near the age of two, they will be able to start making proper strokes on the paper. You need to start with the basics. This means teaching them to draw straight lines up and down on the page. As they get comfortable with this start them on circles and horizontal lines. Praise them every time they do a good job and encourage them to practice more and more. You do have to be careful about making the activity boring through repetition. Turn it into a game or a competition, or add music and sing-along options to the activity. As your child become more familiar with how the crayon works and begins to develop a sense of control, they will automatically begin to hold the crayon with their fingers rather than their palms and the shapes that they draw will improve as their technique gets better and they get older. Starting early will lay the groundwork for excellent drawing skills.
Remove Distractions
Although it is a good idea to include music in the activity to keep it interesting for your child, you do not want that music to distract them form the primary task of learning how to draw or paint. The same goes for television; avoid turning it on altogether. Music should play in the background.
This does not mean that your child must shut out the world around him while drawing. On the contrary:
- You must teach him or her to observe the world around them
- Point out objects from an early age and discuss them
- Show them that different things tend to have different shapes and colors
In the long run this will improve your child’s ability to look at an object in real life and make a representation of that object on a piece of paper that is fairly accurate. Encouraging this from a young age can make all the difference. In addition your child will develop a larger imagination at an earlier age which they can call on when taking the first steps in drawing.
Teaching Art For Kids
Some Tips To Teach Art For Kids
Painting
Painting is an activity that can also begin at an early age. Here are some basic steps to follow:
- Find a piece of cardboard or paper that is quite large and that will not be used for anything else.
- Let your child choose a color that will be used for the background of their picture and show them how to paint the entire card. Try to instill the idea of even painting and strokes at this point, but don’t push it – this is their first painting experience and they should basically just have fun.
- Take a break while the paint dries and start discussing what your child may like to paint on top of the background. Make sure that they understand that they will have plenty more opportunities in the future to paint again.
- When the paint is dry, let them continue. The object that they paint is likely to be unrecognizable, but, if you started with drawing lessons first, your child may surprise you with his or her skills transference abilities.
- Completed artworks must be displayed in a place of pride and honor.
Faces
Human beings are geared towards seeing faces everywhere. This makes a face a good starting point when teaching children how to draw. You can start these face lessons at a very early age. What you need are some crayons, some paper, and a mirror. In a quiet room with very few distractions, sit with your child and start discussing the faces you can see in the mirror. Talking all the time through the exercise, begin drawing your face. Say things like “I need a round eye. I think it goes here”. Let your child watch you draw and point out features on your face and theirs that are the same (in other words, all of them – remember we are only looking at the basics at this point: eyes, nose, and mouth on a round circle). Don’t push your child to draw themselves unless they express interest in the drawing or ask you to draw another one. Chatter with them the entire time and don’t stop drawing until your child shows signs that he or she would like to take over the process. All attempts must be praised.
People
After you’ve taught your child to master drawing faces and they seem to be getting bored with that particular activity, you should move on drawing entire people. Point out that you seem to have left out the arms and legs on this person! Oh dear! You had better correct that mistake. This is a step that you will probably only move onto after a few sessions of merely drawing faces. All efforts must be praised. Remember that initially your child is likely to simply add lines to the face to indicate arms and legs, but all efforts must be encouraged and praised. Every time they draw encourage them to try and draw a person. Point out the various features that a person has by pointing to your body and through talking. For example, ask your child what comes between the head the body (the neck) and maybe point out that the ends of hands require fingers. After a while (months and years) your child will start to draw people that look progressively more humanoid and realistic.
Shading And Blending
This is something that you will only start doing once your children are in school and a lot older.
- Use a light and some objects and show your children that the light affects how dark or light certain areas of the object look. This is something that is also caused by the position of the sun.
- Show your children that you can make it look like the sun is shining from anywhere in a picture by coloring in certain areas with darker or lighter shades of the same color.
- Show them that the same crayon can be pressed lightly, for light blue, medium, for medium blue, and hard for dark blue.
- Show them how to blend the colors together by not lifting their crayon but simply changing how hard the press to indicate different areas of light in the drawing.
Children will, after a while, start experimenting on their own. Some children will not be interested in this aspect of drawing and coloring, so do not push it if they are. In fact you should only really be teaching drawing skills to school-age children if they have a real interest in it. Sending them to art class may also be advisable.
It may take some time to teach your child these skills. One of the top tips to teach art for kids is to be patient. Remember that their age will affect their abilities in this regard. Start with the basics. Better yet simply leave crayons and paper where they can see them and let them start drawing themselves. Once they have expressed an interest you can step in and begin guiding their efforts and assisting them in forming more coherent shapes.