Supporting Children's Art Explorations

What is the adult's role when children are drawing? As children begin to create and talk more, the time spent drawing increases. During this time the adult can feel somewhat useless as the child may be in his or her own world and yet still want your presence nearby. This is the perfect opportunity to start "labeling" what you see your child doing and giving him or her the vocabulary associated with drawing.

I like to begin with "I see you..." or another statement that focuses on the child's actions.

-focus on color "I see you used red, blue, and green".

-notice shapes (circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle) "It looks like you made a circle shape".

-focus on direction (back and forth, up and down, side to side, round and round) "You're moving the pencil up and down".

-look at lines (straight, spiral, swirled, zig-zag, bumpy) "You drew a line that swirls around and around".

-notice pressure used (hard, soft) "I see you pressed really hard and made a dark mark".

-observe speed "I see you moved the pen really fast".

All this observing and labeling then becomes useful later when children begin to ask for help with drawing. They will have this glossary of words they can use as their drawing becomes representational. So when your child asks "can you draw a tree for me" you can answer "let's work together to draw one. What shape is a tree (you may have to look at a tree with your child)? What lines do we need to connect to make the tree? What colors should we use (it's okay to draw a purple tree)?" And so on... this puts the child back in the position of feeling they are capable, competent and can draw anything. It also puts you in the position of assisting through observation and empowering the child by using his or her own knowledge to solve a problem.

Sebastien has internalized the motion of drawing fast.

He is also working on the motion of round and round. Watch as Max then tries out round and round for himself.

Friday Group - Drawing with Markers and Pencils

This week the children were presented with both markers and colored pencils. Kaia noticed the difference between the two utensils right away as she commented that Sebastien was using a pencil. She was paying close attention to the movements and actions of her friends. As she practiced her spiral shapes she noticed Sebastien moving his marker very fast back and forth and tried the movement out for herself.

Hannah's movements and use of the marks and pencils reminded me of how an adult would use the same instruments to write. Sometimes her movements are loopy and slow while other times they are short and quick. She even holds the marker like you would if you were writing and stops to tell me a few things mid writing.



Bryce had to figure out the mechanics of the utensils and spent his time exploring the physical properties of the markers and pencils. Taking lids on and off, putting the markers in and out of the container, and placing the pencils in and out of the holes in the holder were his primary focus.



Watching Bryce actually influenced how I set out the same experience for the Wednesday group. Instead of having the holder be the main focus (many children spent time trying to figure it out), I decided to place the holder with half the pencils at the easel so the children could still experiment with putting them in and out. The remaining pencils where placed in a container on the table with purpose being to bring the attention back to highlighting the difference between markers and pencils.

Wednesday Group - Drawing with Crayons and Pens

With renewed enthusiasm drawing took center stage and I had a hard time keeping up with the children's explorations. Scribbling changed surfaces from horizontal to vertical, up high to down low, had movement and drama. I was excited to see the children move the drawing utensils over to the easel to experiment with the movement of the pens or crayons on a vertical surface. Theo was the first to try out the easel but soon Zadie and, later, Sebastien joined in. Even though the easel has a tray both Theo and Zadie repeatedly returned to the table to get a new pen, venturing back and forth. The taking off, putting on, and finding missing lids was also an integral part of the exploration.

Watching young children scribble I am fascinated by the number of times they change colors, make a specific mark more than once, or just one mark very purposefully. In the next video watch as Theo uses a regular crayon and then edge of the square crayon, which makes a thicker yet less dramatic mark. Then he uses the green pen to make a circular motion, taking off the lid before he makes his mark and putting the lid back on after he finishes, very purposefully. Next Sebastien seems to not pay attention as he makes a few marks but a short time later makes two very long vertical marks one after the other. What does it all mean, I don't know but I am intrigued!



While I was shooting this next video I initially was drawn to Caleb's scribbling by the small patches of color he was creating on the section of paper where he was working. He was so carefully testing each marker but then as I watched the video later I noticed that as he pulled off the marker lid whatever hand the remaining marker was in was the hand that drew. Why is this interesting...well it takes a lot of small motor coordination to get the lid on and off and usually children begin to show a strong preference for one hand or another, switching to the more skilled hand when the task is a challenge. As children use writing utensils more and more you begin to see a preference for using one hand over the other but Caleb is still obviously experimenting.



Max first came to the drawing area and picked up a few pens to examine them. After looking them over he moved on to another activity in the room. He did return later and I was surprised as his first inclination when he had the crayons in his hands was to squat down and draw on the floor. Not wanting to lose the moment by discouraging drawing on the floor, I grabbed a piece of paper and put it on the floor to give him a surface to draw on. Well this drew almost everyone over to the area. I loved that Max had his own idea of how and where to use the crayons. I see my role as supporting the intentions of every child and making their sure they can explore and think outside what I may envision. (The video is a little shaky because I'm trying to hold the paper with one hand, video with the other and then try to tape the paper down.)

Wednesday and Friday Group - Drawing

"Scribbles are the building blocks of children's art. From the moment the child discovers what it looks like and feels like to put these lines down on paper, he has found something he will never lose, he has found art." - Rhoda Kellogg

To start our exploration of drawing utensils I wanted to bring back the beeswax crayons as a familiar material before moving on to pens, pencils, chalk, and pastels. The Wednesday group was only mildly interested in the crayons. Some children's explorations were so brief that I didn't even catch any video of them. I pondered this as I planned for the Friday groups exploration and after bouncing a few ideas off another parent decided to include pens with the crayons to see if the Friday group would spend more time scribbling. The new element of the pens did bring a new excitement to the exploration. I was thrilled to see both the pens and crayons being explored equally.

Young children's first scribbles seem meaningless and unconnected to most people but it is the action of scribbling that is the foundation of drawing. An important step in children's development of artistic abilities, scribbling is a fascinating method of expression for the young child. It can be explosive or careful, simple or complex, random or purposeful but it is exploration in its highest form. I want to highlight that scribbling is more than what it seems. In the book, The Psychology of Children's Art, Rhoda Kellogg categories 20 different types of scribbles made up of lines that are horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circular, curving, and waving. Along with the many types of scribbles there are also 17 different patterns of where children place their scribbles on a page. A dot can become an eye, a line can be connected to another line to make a shape, and a circle can be the body of a favorite animal. Each mark and the motion that is needed from the hand and arm to make the mark is the practice needed to move to the next stage of drawing, representational art.

Diagonal and Vertical Lines

Theo very lightly moves the crayon toward him and as he does so it moves in a diagonal fashion (just once). Then he gets another crayon and again move it toward his own body making a vertical line and then another vertical line as he moves it away from his body.

Spirals

Caleb makes both large and intricate circular motions with the crayons creating spirals. One of the great qualities about the square beeswax crayons it that there are many different surfaces of the crayons that can be used to make marks and Caleb utilizes them.

Back and Forth

The back and forth motion, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally creates a layered and concentrated section of color. Bryce practices this motion along with some dots.



Kaia and Sebastien also practice the back and forth motion. Kaia actually is layering different colors over one another. Using one color and then going to get another.



Overlapping Circle/Oval
Kaia carefully uses the yellow crayon to draw a large curve that then crosses back over itself making a shape that resembles a fish with a different start and end point but the curved line crosses itself creating an oval or circle shape (sort of like this _). In the background Sebastien is working on his back and forth motions.


Dot and Slash Marks
Sebastien combines a couple of scribbling techniques. He makes short dot/slash marks as well as fast back and forth movements switching colors as he goes.

Properties of Drawing Utensils

Part of the fun of drawing is also getting to know the properties of the materials. Bryce explores how to take off and put back on the pen tops. He also notices that the crayons feel different and have some give to them... they feel really good when one is teething!